What do you know: The other side
by baby-kitsune9
Summary: The story that I said that I would write. Still a time travel fic, but much better. Kakashi/fem naruto pairing eventually. now with a new chap 22 & 23! YAY!
1. Chapter 1

It was pouring rain. The clouds covering the sky in dreary grey and angry black clouds as the blond resheathed her katana blade and turned to look at the devistation around her. Bodies lay in pieces everywhere. Sakura. Hinata. Shino. Ino. Choji and Shika both lay side by side where they had fallen, blood mixing with the rain, tinting the ground pink. Her violet eyes swept the muddy field around her, touching on the small figure of a child, Asuma Jr. And next to him his cousin Konahamaru who had died trying to reach him.

Gone. They were all gone.

Tenten, Lee, Neji, Kiba, Gaara...

Tsunade. Jiriaya.

Iruka. Genma. Kotetsu. Shikakau. Inoichi. Choza.

Why had this happened? Why had everyone she had loved been taken from her like this? They had'nt done anything wrong. None of them had done anything wrong.

**_Kit. You need to move. The base will be going up in flames soon._**

_I don't care. _

And she didn't. Really she didn't care about anything anymore. Her heart ached as she looked around again, her mind numb with greif. This should'nt have happened!

Kanoha _should _still be standing. It's people _should_ still be alive! Her friends, her comrades, her world, _everyone_ and _everything_ should still be-

"It's over Kyubbi. I'm done."

**_Kit? _**

"I don't want to live anymore..." She could'nt take it. Knowing that everything would still exist, that everyone would still be alive if it was'nt for her. She wondered across the feild until she found the person that she had been looking for and dropped down beside him. _Kakashi. _Her sensei, her friend, her lover-

Her soul mate lay face down in the grass, his body torn to pieces by the last jutsu that he had used in an effort to stop Madara. The attack had boiled him alive, turning his chakra into a massive eletrical surge that caused his skin, to blister, his eyes to melt, and his body to burn almost to ashes. He had laughed, even when he had been in such agony, the sheer joy of being able to do one last thing for his mate and his people had caused a phycotic break. But she doubted that he had suffered much since Sakura had given him something before he had used the jutsu to turn his body into an large battery.

He died, but he had taken out over a hundred of the enemy's men when he went. She reached out and started to touch him but his bones crumbled under her finger tips and she made a pitiful choking sound and jerked her hand back as her vision blurred.

So much pain.

So much death.

All for nothing.

Not one man, woman, or child from the leaf village remained. They had been totally wiped out.

**_Kit? You have to go._**

_I'm not leaving._ She thought stubbornly as she sat down next to Kakashi's corpse. She'd stay here. Go up in the flames along with everything else. It seemed a fitting end to everything. The war, her life, the once great shinobi village Kanoha...

**_You cannot stay here and perish. _**

Oh yes she could. She didn't have to do anything now. There was nothing left to live for, nothing left to protect. No one left to care for. Yes, this was a fitting end for one who had destroyed everything merely by existing.

Kyubbi sighed. It was no use trying, her kit had given up.

But that didn't mean that she had. Or would. Her kit had paid a terrible price for her monsterous acts, and now...

**_I guess it's finally time that I took responsibility for this. _**

**_Kit, I'm going to erase your pain and give you the chance to start over again-_** Kyubbi said as the impending expolsion rocked the earth under them and the ground chipped and broke away causing them to fall into the furnace that had once been the underground base of their enemy.

Her kit said nothing. She didn't even scream as she fell into the flames that were eagerly awaiting to consume her below.


	2. at the beginning

She was being shaken. Someones hand gripped her shoulder and was shaking her hard.

She wanted to wake up. To tell them to go away, she was dying and she would appreciate it if she could die in peace. "Uzu. Uzu wake up." She frowned and moaned and turned over to glare at the person shaking her and stopped cold when she saw Sakura staring back at her. Her emerald green eyes flickering from her face to the area around them anxiously. Uzu blinked and tried to focus her eyes and saw a glittering black stone behind Sakura.

_The memorial stone. _The same memorial stone that had been destroyed in the first attack against the village. _What the hell? _She heard several people walking towards them and twisted her head to look at the ones stopping just above her head and stared in shock at Shikamaru, Kiba, Neji, Lee and Gaara. "Sakura, has she woken up yet?" Neji asked and Sakura reached out and grasped her shirt front and pulled her upright and looked like she was about to smack her when she realised that Uzu was now totally awake.

"What the-"

Gaara dropped down next to her and gave her a tight lipped smile. "I know how you feel, this is just odd." He said as he looked around. They were all at training ground seven. The place where Kakashi used to train them. Uzu looked from one person to the other then around training ground seven. Her face pale under all of the blood and ashes.

"Is this a dream?" Uzu asked in a weak tone, tears slipping down her cheeks as she looked around.

"I don't think it is. I think that we're really here." Shika said as he dropped down to the ground next to her. One of his hands automatically going to the soft, lush green grass under them. His fingers shifting and lightly pulling at it. He closed his eyes and breathed deep. Taking in the scent of the grass.

He hadn't smelled fresh clean, green stuff in forever. It reminded him of all the time he had used to spend in his mother's flower garden, laying on his back, napping, watching the clouds and such. Uzu looked at him wide eyed. But they couldn't be in Kanoha village.

It was gone. Destroyed.

She was about to ask something else when they all heard someone pushing their way through the bushes to their left, muttering curses as they dragged a sobbing child behind them. "Damn it Asuma, stop crying! We have to find the others and figure out where we-"

"Konohamaru!" Sakura cried happily as the young man broke through the bushes and stepped out into the open and froze as he looked around. His jaw dropping open as he gaped at the scenery around him.

"Holy mother of-"

Lee flung a kunai at the seventeen year old. Konahamaru yelped, jumped back and tripped over Asuma and fell. Taking the seven year old boy with him. Lee laughed evilly as Konahamaru growled, swore and tried to get up without taking the little boy's head off with his foot or something.

Shika sighed and shook his head. Neji chuckled. Kiba grinned.

Hearing Konahamaru carry on like this reminded them a lot of Asuma-sensei and all his little episodes. Gaara stood up and went to help Kona, and Asuma out before they killed each other. "So where do you think we are?" Kiba asked Shika, his dark eyes staring at the faces on the mountain side behind the Hokage's tower.

Shika made a funny sound. It was hard to say where they were since he didn't recall how they had gotten there in the first place. Hell, he didn't even remember what he had had for breakfast before waking up on training ground seven. "I think we're in Kanoha...but I'm not quite sure how we got here, or why we're here." Or when they had gotten there, though from the looks of it, it was before the attacks that had destroyed the village.

"Uzu do you remember anything before Sakura woke you up?"

"I remember fire. My skin burning off, my heart exploding in my chest...and that's pretty much it..." Uzu said in a shaky tone as all eyes turned to her and focused on her face. She was joking right? No one could survive something like that. Yet there she was, her body intact even if her clothes were badly burned and damaged. She was alive, her flesh in place over her skeleton, the blood rushing through her veins.

"Are you saying that you died?"

Uzu made a funny sound and nodded her head.

Shika's jaw dropped. Kiba grabbed one of her wrists at the same time Sakura did and both checked for a pulse, then turned her arms this way and that and examined her.

"I thought that Kyubbi wouldn't allow you to die." Neji said in an irritated tone. Uzu was about to answer when Gaara called out.

"It wouldn't. Kyubbi is a demon, a creature without flesh or form. Being sealed inside of a human body allows it to learn more about us, to feel, and taste and touch anything and everything. In return for being allowed to inhabit the human body, it lends it's power, its knowledge and other things to the one that it's sealed with in. Allowing the host to die would be condemning it to a half life. It wouldn't allow that to happen under any circumstances."

"Sooo Kyubbi may be the reason that we're here." Kiba said nervously.

"It is possible that in it's long life, the demon may have learned certain things that could be used to reverse the condition of it's host, even though the host is dead." Gaara said as Kona and Asuma both settled down and shut up so that the Kazakage could speak.

"Could Kyubbi have dragged us along for the ride while bringing Uzu back?"

Gaara mulled over the question and ran a few scenario's in his head before answering. "Yes. If we were all close enough to get caught up in whatever it did. Or perhaps it chose to send us back to help Uzu change the past. What ever reason Kyubbi had there are now several things that we must do. 1) Gather info. We need to know what day it is, what month, and year. 2) Hide ourselves in plain sight. Though we are now surrounded by the ones that once loved us, they could become a threat to us if they think that we are strangers after something. 3) We need to plan accordingly and go from there."

Shika nodded in agreement.

"Okay. How do we find out the date?"

"I'll go scout around. The rest of you rest here and wait for me to return. If anyone else from our group shows up, fill them in." Gaara said as he used a transformation jutsu to change himself into Kakashi and noted the pained expression on Uzu's face when she looked at him and felt his heart clench painfully in his chest as some of the missing pieces clicked into place.

Ah, so she lost him. _I'm sorry to use your beloveds form dear one, but this must be done. _

And when he returned he would pull Uzu aside and let her cry for her lost love.


	3. recon, day, month, year

Lucky.

Sabuku no Gaara had to be one of the luckiest S.O.B's on the fucking planet to be able to walk through the crouded streets of Kanoha village and not get caught. Apparently picking Kakashi's form to walk around in, had it's advantages. The people around him seemed to be going out of their way to steer clear of him. Everytime he started to brush past someone, they took one look at his face and quickly scurried out of the way.

It was as if they were afraid to get in his way. Like they thought he would eat them alive or something.

It made him wonder what Hatake had done to inspire such fear in his own people. He walked to a small store around the corner from the resturaunt where Uzu and the others had held his eighteenth birthday party, several months before the village had been destroyed, and slipped into the small corner store and nearly died on the spot when he bumped into Asuma Sarutobi, Maito Gai, and the silver haired jounin that he was impersonating.

The three stared at him. Two in shock and the third stared at him over the top of one of his books, a bemused expression on his face.

Gaara stared back, his legs rooted to the spot where he stood. He paled, then turned beet red and quickly eached out and knocked over the shelf next to him to distract the three and took off running out the door and down the street as fast as he could.

Gai and Asuma snapped out of it as soon as the shelf and everything on it went crashing to the floor and then turned and looked at Kakashi warily. "Say..."

"Are you-"

"Both of you shut up. You're annoying me." Kakashi said as he snapped his book closed and put it back in his weapon's pouch and stepped over the shelf and walked out of the store and started walking in the direction where his other self had taken off.

_Un-fucking-believable_. Kakashi seethed as he trailed the figure up ahead. All he had wanted was one night. One. To relax and unwind after a particularly distasteful mission, and instead what he got was four hours off and an imposter. Goddamit, he had been planning to sit down with the guys and play poker and drink until he made himself pass out. And now he had to deal with this shit.

Whoever the guy ahead was, he was dead.

(***************************************************************************************************************************************************************)

Sauske, Ino, Choji, Shino and Hinata were confused.

They had all woken up in a feild outside fo the village and could'nt remember how they had gotten there. All they knew was that they were in what looked like Kanoha village. And after Shino and Hinata had done a little recon, they had been shocked to discover that they were in Kanoha village.

Three years before they had graduated from the academy. In the year 2000.

"Do you think we're the only one's that were sent back?" Sauske asked Shino. Looking to his former classmate for guidance because Uzu was'nt around and he was'nt sure what to do other than defer his decision making and such to Shino in her place. Shino glanced at the raven, trying to think of what he could tell him and the others. But to be perfectly honest, he didn't have a clue.

"Dunno. Does anyone remember who was with us back in the feild?"

"Gaara." Sauske said as he thought of the red headed young man. The boy had started out a cold emotionless demon and had grown and evolved into a human being, someone great, who had been looked too to guide everyone else in times of great stress and need. And he had done so beautifully.

"Uzu. Neji. Shikamaru. Kiba. Sakura."

"Lee. Konahamaru, and little Asuma."

Choji got a pained expression on his face and hid his eyes. "God I hope that they're okay."

"If Uzu is with them then they will be. She would'nt let anything happen to them." Shino said as he peeked around the corner of the building they were hiding beside.

"What now?" Sauske asked curiously.

"I think we should use a transformation jutsu to change ourselves into kids and go find the others." _If they're even here. _Hinata said as she changed herself into a kid, about eight or nine years old. Sauske grinned at her.

Well, he had told Uzu and Sakura that if given the chance he _would_ do everything over again. And not give in to his need for revenge or Orochimaru's whispers of power. Looks like he was getting his wish. "I'm game." Sauske said as he followed Hinata's lead. Shino muttered something under his breath but also changed himself to a kid and then looked at Choji impatiently.

Choji sighed tiredly and changed himself to a kid too and glared at Shino and Sauske, god the two were so damn irritating.

"Okay, here is what we're going to do...Hinata, use your Byakugan. I need you to _see_ if you can find the others. We'll follow." Shino said as Hinata nodded and activated her Byakugan and started to step out when she saw Kakashi run by, or rather someone desguising themself as Kakashi. She pointed and looked over her shoulder at the others.

"Found one."

"Well, that was easy-" Sauske started to say and stopped speaking as he caught sight of the real copy nin weaving his way through the crowd.

"Okay, I take it back. This is bad." Sauske said as he paled a little bit.

Choji growled and grasped Sauske's shirt front and lifted him up off of the ground and reared back his arm. Sauske squirmed and stuttered, "H-H-Hey wait!"

"Just shut up and go distract Kakashi!" Choji snapped as he threw the Uchiha-chibi as high into the air as he could. Shino and Ino and Hinata all slipped out of the alley and started running.

"Don't you think Kakashi will think it just a tad suspicous that Sauske will be falling out of the sky?" Ino growled at Choji as he caught up to them. He gave her a cheeky grin and said happily.

"Not our problem."


	4. meeting up pt 1

While everyone rested and the men folk huddled around and started to plan their next move Uzu decided to go walk around a little bit and whispered to Sakura that she would be back soon and got up and walked off. She didn't go far. The others would come looking for her if they sensed her getting too far away from them. But that didn't stop her from walking to the farthest part of training ground seven and sitting down somewhere and just stared unblinking at the dark night sky, the mounatain with the faces carved into it, the tower, the glowing lights of the buildings.

God this was amazing. she had seen these things in her dreams for the last four years. Had longed to see her village in one piece, to see the mountain side, the glowing lights and everything else. _I had almost forgotten what everything looked like._ She thought sadly as tears welled up and slipped down her cheeks, leaving thin trails through the ashes and blood covering her face.

She had stopped crying for the village a long time ago, but her guilt over failing to save everyone dear to her had never really faded. She was a failure of epic preportions. And she hated herself for that. Because it meant that everything that everyone had once thought about her, called her, every cruel thing meant to hurt her had been right on the money. They were right about her. They had always been right about her.

And nothing would ever change that fact.

Nothing.

So she no longer cared about even bothering to try. If they were really back, like everyone was starting to believe they were...then she would do things differently this time. This time she would fail the test, get kicked out of the school and live her life as an ordinary person. The others would'nt like it, but after the hell that they had all been through the past few years she doubted that they would argue with her desicion.

Some of them might even join her. And that was fine.

She could live with that if it happend. But the fact remained that some things were going to change...

(***************************************************************************************************************************************************************)

Hinata caught up to the one hedged into Kakashi and grabbed his wrist and pulled him into an alley fourty feet from a certain bad tempered and murderous jounin and hissed at him. "Change to a kid! Hurry!"

Gaara didn't bother argueing with the Hyuga girl and did as she told him and used one of the jutsu that Uzu had taught him to change into a little kid about ten years old and hugged Hinata, he was just so happy to see her. Really he was. Out of all the rookies Uzu, Sakura Lee, Shikamaru and Hinata were the best friends he could have ever asked for.

They had stood by him through every little tragedy, every personal break down. Everything. And that was why he would do anything for them. He'd drink poison for them, kill for them, even die for them if they asked him too. He loved them so much. "I was worried about you." He said in Hinata's ear and she wrapped her arms around his slender body and hugged him back.

"We were worried about you too Gaara."

"Who all is with you?" Gaara asked as he pulled back a little bit. Hinata flashed him a quick silver grin and put a finger to her lips and peeked out of the alley as Sauske fell down, down, down. Screaming all the way, right towards a startled looking copy nin.

Kakashi had very little time to react to the screams of the young boy falling through the air towards him. He had a breif moment to think, What the fuck? Then took several running steps as the crowd around him suddenly realised that there was a small child falling towards the ground and started to part. Screams of horror and pointing happened simotaniously as Kakashi ran forward a few more steps without taking his eyes off of the boy and he took a flying leap into the air and snatched the boy in mid air and used the closest roof top to land on.

The boy cradled in his arms looking shaken and pale as the copy nin looked up at the sky and wondered just how the hell the kid had ened up falling from such a height. It was'nt like a little bird could have snatched the boy up and dropped him from some where over head. Not a normal bird anyways.

"Oi kid-" Kakashi said as he looked down and froze for a second when he realised just who the kid was. _Oh fuck me. The Uchiha boy. _Sauske looked up at his former sensei and stared at him, years of pain and regret stirring in his heart. He had missed Kakashi-sensei! He had missed him so much! He wanted to hug the man and think him...

For everything.

For all the years he had tried to teach him, and for all the years of pain and anguish when he and the others had'nt given up on him. But since Kakashi didn't know him at this point he opted for the lesser of the two evils and simply hugged the silver haired man as tightly as he could and muttered over and over again. "Thank you. Thank you. thank you. Thank you-"

Kakashi stiffened as the boy hugged him and felt his mind go blank as his arms lifted to wrap around the obviously frightened child and rubbed his back as the boy thanked him over and over again. "Okay. Alright. Your safe now kid." Kakashi said akwardly as he patted the boy's back.

Sauske smiled against Kakashi's vest but said nothing because he knew that Kakashi was right.

He was safe now.

Because he had finally come home.

Hinata looked at Gaara and grinned as Shino and Ino and Choji came running up, all of them also chibi's. "Gaara!" Ino cried and flung herself at the red head. Gaara blushed and staggered back and fell onto his butt as Ino's body slammed into him and knocked him back.

"H-Hello Ino." Gaara stuttered as she hugged him and giggled happily. Ah, it was nice to be missed. He mused as he patted the girl on the back until she pulled away and stood up. Shino held out a hand and helped the red head up as Ino bounced around like a hyper child in a candy store. Choji smiled at the Kazakage as Shino pulled him to his feet.

"Is Sauske okay?"

Hinata snorted and grinned at her old friend. "He's good. Kakashi caught him before he could splatter his brains all over the place."

"Sweet." Shino said in bemusment.

"Very. But Choji is going to die if Sauske gets his hands on him any time with in the next hour or so." Hina said warily. Choji shrugged his shoulders and looked unconcerned. If Sauske came after him, he'd knock the raven around like he had before they had woken up in the feild.

"Thats fine. Choji can take him. Gaara where did you come from? Was there anyone with you?" Shino asked curiously. Gaara nodded his head as his expression sobered.

"Training ground seven. Around the memeorial stone. I left everyone there so that I could do recon."

"Everyone? Everyone is there? Shika? Uzu? Neji? Lee? Kiba?" Gaara nodded his head.

"Sakura, Kona, and Asuma too."

"Holy shit." So everyone was there.

That was good to know. Sort of.


	5. meeting up pt 2

Odd. There was something odd going on tonight.

Shikaku could feel it in his bones as he stepped up onto his front porch and looked around. He had this weird nagging feeling that something huge was going down tonight, but for the life of him, he couldn't figure out what it was. He reached out and opened the door and nearly screamed like a little girl when he saw his wife standing just inside the door looking murderous.

"Shikamaru Nara!"

"Wrong person love." Shikaku said warily as he stared at his pretty young wife. She blinked and sighed in frustration and sat back down in the chair that she had dragged across the floor and glared at the door.

"What did he do this time?" Shikaku asked as he stepped through the door as his wife growled at him and crossed her arms over her breasts and looked menacing. An amazing feat for someone who wasn't a shinobi, but frightening never the less.

"I haven't seen our son all day! It's past eight o clock at night, he hasn't come home from school, he's not at Choji's... Chjoi and Ino are missing too by the way. Hiashi is running his clan ragged looking for Hinata and Neji-kun. Tsume is looking for her son too!"

Shikaku stared at his enraged and worried wife and frowned. It sounded like all of the kids were missing. "Has anyone contacted the Hokage and told him that the kids are missing?"

His wife looked scared and shook her head no. "Because none of the parents really know why the kids are missing, or if their just running around some place playing games. So everyone is out looking for them." Because there was no real way of knowing that the kids had been snatched up by someone or if they were simply out playing and lost track of time.

Without evidence of foul play or kidnapping then the Hokage would wait a few hours, maybe a day to see if the kids would come home before doing anything to help them find their children. It was all about information and man power.

The Hokage needed information before he could spare even a few men to help look for the missing children.

"Alright look, just stay here and wait for Shikamaru. I'll go out and ask some of the Jounin to help us find the kids-" Shikaku said as he leaned down and kissed his wife on the cheek before straitening his spine and walking back out the door. _Damn troublsome kids. _

He had been looking forward to a nice long night of _cuddling_ with his wife. He walked out the front door and closed it behind him and walked back down the walk way and tried to think of where he could start looking for his son and the other kids.

(***************************************************************************************************************************************************************)

Sarutobi sat back in his office chair and sighed tiredly as one of the Anbu led Haruno Sakura's crying mother out of the room. He didn't know what was going on but the distraught woman hadn't been the first mother to come by his office today.

He had been visited by five more upset mothers in the past two hours. Each one upset and worried that their daughters or son's were missing and couldn't be found. Hiashi and Tsume had come by along with Choza and Inoichi. All of them had been besides themselves with worry and fear that something had happened to the kids. "Is there anyone else outside?" He asked the Anbu as he returned.

The man shook his head no and he sighed. He needed to do something to help find the kids since they were all fairly young and didn't know how to survive without help of some kind. Meaning that wherever they were, they had gotten there by means other than their own. Perhaps some of them were even hurt and waiting for help. It was hard to say at that moment. But the fact remained that he couldn't just sit by and do nothing.

"Anbu-san. I want you to go out and find Gai, Asuma and Kakashi and bring them here. Then I want you to gather five-no six people two of which must be medical nins and I want you to help them look for the missing children."

"Hai." The Anbu said then vanished to do his lord's bidding.

(***************************************************************************************************************************************************************)

Gaara led the others back to training ground seven and sighed in relief when he saw that everyone was still there. Except for Uzu who had told Sakura that she was going for a walk, something that Gaara wasn't too very worried about since the young woman would'nt go very far to begin with. "Look who I found." Gaara said as they walked up in their chibi forms. Shikamaru looked at the small group and raised a brow.

"Nice. But what's with the kiddie looks?" Neji asked curiously as he knelt down and checked out chibi Hinata and smiled as Shino filled them all in.

"We're like this because we have come back to when we first started the academy." Shika blinked, Kiba cocked his head and Lee laughed like a lunatic. Well that certainly explained why the village was still standing. It was because Kyubbi had sent them here, had sent them so far back that they were still children. Shika had a distinct moment of clarity where he snorted and shook his head. That damn stupid fox demon would do something sadistic like this.

Shika wasn't sure if he wanted to laugh or cry. On one hand he got to relive his child hood and see his parents again, and on the other...ugh. All that homework!

"Hows it going baby?" He asked the girl jokingly. Hina smiled at him and hugged him.

"I'm glad that your here Neji." She said gently and Neji patted her on the head lovingly and smiled at her. He was really glad that she was here too. Uzu walked towards the group looking more worn than she had before Gaara had left the group to do recon. The red head flashed back to his adult appearance and walked over to her and wrapped his arms around her. She stumbled a little bit and might have fallen if Gaara hadn't have been right there to catch her and hug her tightly.

"You've been crying, dearest one." It wasn't a question or an accusation, he was merely stating the truth. She had been crying. And she was so tired that she didn't care to bother to hide it. Everyone else got quiet and watched Gaara lead her over to the large marble stone and help her sit down. Uzu didn't look too good.

Her skin was almost a sickly grey under the blood and ashes on her face, her breathing was a little labored and she looked like she was going to pass out at any second. "Sakura!" Gaara called out to the pinkette and waited for her to come over to him.

Sakura stopped right in front of Uzu and frowned as she knelt down next to the blond and brushed her soft hair back from her face and studied her. "Uzu. Honey, are you okay?" Sakura asked and frowned when she noted how cold and clammy the blonde's skin felt under her hand. She looked back at Gaara as some of the others came up to see if Uzu was okay.

"What's wrong?" Lee demanded as he came up behind Sakura. She turned her head to look at him, a worried look on her face as she tried her medical jutsu to pin point the problem. Uzu's chakra was dangerously low, she was exhausted and in desperate need of rest, she had several mortal looking half healed wounds that she hadn't noticed before and she was starting to run a fever. She needed someone to give her some of their chakra and to rest before she ended up dying from over exertion.

"Her chakra is really really low. Like almost none existant. She needs some chakra and rest." Sakura said as she used her medical training to push some of her chakra into the blonde's body and blend it with her normal chakra so that it wouldn't negatively affect her ability to heal. Gaara reached out and placed his hand on Uzu's chest over her heart and pushed some of his own chakra into her body, using Sakura's chakra trail to mix his own chakra inside of Uzu's body.

Uzu twitched and took a shuddering breath as she felt their chakra circulating through her body. Gods, she was so fucking tired. The two finished giving her their chakra and let their hands fall away as Lee sat down next to her on one side. Kiba took up the other side and put his hand on her head and ran his fingers through her hair like he always did when he was trying to comfort her. "I'm going to force you into a transformation, and put you to sleep. Alright Uzu-hime?" Gaara said gently as he stared at her.

She nodded her head a little bit to indicate that she understood and held her breath as he did the hands signs and tried not to scream as she felt her bones cracking apart and reforming her body to look like a child. She held on for as long as she could during the transformation before she finally slipped into unconsciousness. Lee and Kiba caught her before she could fall forward and carefully slipped off their vests and used one as a pillow and the other to cover her half naked body so that she would be a bit more comfortable and laid her down on the base of the marble stone.

"Is she going to be okay?" Shino asked from behind Gaara. Sakura used her medical jutsu again, this time checking to make sure that everything was starting to work better.

"She should be in a few weeks or so." Sakura said gently as she tucked Kiba's vest up and under her shoulder and quickly took her pulse.

The extra chakra was doing it's job. Uzu was starting to breath easier, her pulse was steady, and though she was running a fever and her chakra was out of whack her wounds were starting to heal again too. "Will she be totally out of commission that long?" Shika asked worriedly. He didn't want Uzu out that long because it could mean that she could get hurt easier. Especially if what Shino had told him was true and they had been sent back to the same year that they had started the academy, because it meant that the adults hated her again and might try to kill her if they left her alone for too long.

"Maybe. She's in a bad way Shika." Sakura said gently and the shadow nin growled and swore under his breath.

"We can't leave her alone, Sakura." Shika snapped. Sakura nodded her head in understanding as Neji looked thoughtful.

"We can take turns watching her. Sneak her into our rooms at night and let her stay with us."

"But what about our parents? Some of them would jump at the chance to hurt her."

"Then we'll just have to make it clear to them, that if they hurt her...we'll kill them." Konahamaru said from behind them all. Everyone turned to look at the seventeen year old in shock. That had to be the scariest thing that had ever come out of the kid's mouth aside from the words, 'Lets check paper bombs at them and laugh while they scream.'

But the kid was right. Sort of.

They would just have to make it clear to their families that if they dared to touch Uzu in a harmful way, they would suffer for it.


	6. found

Kakashi could'nt believe the current turn of events. First the Uchiha falls from the sky like rain and now all of the children in the village were missing, and though he hated to hear it, many of the adults were spreading rumors that Uzu Uzumaki had taken the kids somewhere and was going to hollow out their skulls and eat their brains and it was _all_ getting on his nerves because it was all just so much _crap_.

Kakashi knew for a fact that while Uzu may be a little bit of a trouble maker, she would'nt hurt anyone unless she was defending someone _else_. But never the less he kept his mouth shut and let the adults talk amongst themselves as the Hokage had pulled him and the others chosen to lead the search teams aside and told them that he wanted them to find the kids, and Uzu before anyone else could.

He was afraid of what the adults might do if they found the group first and Uzu was with them. Because even if it was by mere conincidence the adults would lash out against the child and try to hurt her. Kakashi had understood all too well what he had meant, after all he had been in the same boat once upon a time when he had been a kid.

Back then, it had been his father who had made a mistake. Or at least that was what he had been led to believe.

His father had led a mission during the last great shinobi war and had bothched it when one of his men had been captured and he had gone back to save him. He had been called a traitor, tried as one by the council, taken off duty, and had been forced to watch Kakashi get attacked by the villagers and his fellow shinobi because of him. In the end he had'nt been able to stand seeing his son suffer because of him and had saught to escape.

He had commited suicide while Kakashi was on a mission and had been found laying face down in a pool of dry blood hours later by his nine year old son. Kakashi had been so broken by the experience that he had stopped functioning at all for several years after that.

He seemed more like himself now, but that didn't mean that he was well again. He was still distraught. Still alone. Still hurting and unable to cope well with grief and pain. He saught to block things out, to forget just for a little while, only allowing himself some comfort when he was fucking some faceless woman that he didn't care about. And even that didn't help him for very long.

He had done much better up until the Kyubbi attack. After Minato had died he had reverted back to his self destructive ways and had joined Anbu. He had done his village and his Kage proud, his body count was more staggering than the sheer number of people who had died during the holocaust.

He'd had a good run. Seven years in Anbu, Six of them spent as a captian and leader of his own team. He had'nt started to settle down again until after he had retired as an Anbu.

Then he had rediscovered his reason for living.

It was her. _Uzu_. Minato's daughter. She was alone in the world, without parents, without friends, without any care of any kind.

And he had been secretly watching her from a distance since his last day as an Anbu when he had been walking home late one night and seen her being attacked by a group of villagers who had beaten her badly and thrown her bruised and bloody little body into the river and walked off laughing.

He had been outraged by the villagers treatment of her, of Minato's flesh and blood. Of the little girl who was the village hero. His _only_ reason for existing.

So he understood all too well how lost and alone she must feel. He understood how frightened she must be when she was alone at home, or at school or walking through the village. And because he understood, he'd die before he let any of those assholes touch her.

"Kakashi! I've picked up a trail!" A small brown and black pug called to him, snapping the copy nin out of his dark thoughts. His dark blue eye narrowed at the dog as Gai and Asuma sped up to hear what the dog had to say.

"Where?" Kakashi asked.

"Up ahead. It smells like all of them are gathered at the memorial stone..." Kakashi started to sigh in relief when the dog sniffed the air again, growled and called. "Kakashi, I smell blood!" Kakashi bared his teeth behind his mask and as Asuma swore.

"Son of a bitch!"

"How much do you smell Pakkun?" Kakashi growled as he sped up a little bit.

"Too much. It's mingled with the scents of the kids." _Along with some other things like smoke and sorrow._ Pakkun thought as he ran faster. Gai came up beside him and scooped the little pug up and took a flying leap out of the tree's after Kakashi and Asuma. The'd reach the kids in just a second, then they would be able to see what was going on.

(***************************************************************************************************************************************************************)

Konahamaru sensed the three nins coming a mile away. "Guys! Incoming!" He called to the others. Everyone quickly turned themselves into kids and started to crowd around Uzu to protect her. Kona gently pushed some of them aside and scooped up the blond, and grabbed little Asuma and snarled at the tired boy.

"Stay quiet or so help me god, I'll change you into a girl and you'll wear dresses and get hit on by pervs for the rest of your life!" Asuma looked up at his older cousin and looked like he was about to cry. He knew that his cousin was a little out of sorts and angry about the war. But did he have to threaten him at every turn? He was'nt doing anything that a normal kid his age would'nt do!

Kids cried and complained for cripes sake!

Sakura, Gaara, Neji, Shika, Shino, Choji, Lee and Kiba gathered around Kona and drew their kunai. They could sense the three coming, but they didn't know who they were, and didn't want to take the chance that the three coming to them were after Uzu. Konahamaru tightened his grip on the girl that had influinced his life in so many ways, and looked down at her little face. He could'nt remember the last time she had felt so small or fagile to him because she had always been nothing but a tower of stregnth to him.

"Protect Uzu-hime." Shika growled as he raised his kunai. Sakura and the others reflecting his moments and prepaired to fight as Kakashi, Gai, and Asuma burst through the trees and landed several feet from the group and froze.

Sakura gasped and started to drop her kunai and step forward but Gaara's hand on her shoulder, stopped her cold. "Don't Sakura."

Kakashi's dark blue eye flickered from one little face to another, looking for any signs of pain. The kids all looked okay despite the dried blood and ashes on their skin, the tears in their clothes, and theeir strange actions. But the small figure being held by the dark haired teen was another thing all together.

Kakashi studied the little girl, wondering what was wrong with her. She was'nt struggling against the teen, was'nt screaming or kicking or trying to get away. He could'nt even tell if she was breathing at this point. He glared at the teen and snarled, "Hand over the blond." As he stepped forward and held his arms out to take her. The teen bared his teeth at him and growled.

"Go fuck yourself jerk. I'm not handing her over to anyone but the Hokage." Fury and rage warred with in Kakashi as he debated on killing the boy and taking the blond child from his cold dead hands as a red headed child wearing Sauna clothes turned around and put his kunai away and held his arms out to the teen and said,

"Hand her here." The teen looked like he wanted to argue with the kid but in the end handed Uzu to the boy. Kakashi stepped forward and quickly snatched the blond from the red head and cradled Uzu's small body in his arms and felt for a pulse. Uzu's pulse was faint, but it was there. He moved back away from the suspicious teen and laid the child down on the ground and paled a little bit when he saw the blood staining her face. He pushed the blood stained dark green vest aside and stared at the torn, bloody and burned shirt covering the childs half naked body.

"Jesus Christ-" What the fuck had happened to_ his_ girl? Kakashi wondered as he quickly looked her over. Her chakra was dangerously low, she was suffering from exhaustion and chakra deprivation, the large torn and bloody shirt had fused to one of her arms at the shoulder and again at her stomach and the small of her back. Her once waist legnth blond hair looked like it had been set on fire, the ends were uneven and blackened.

"How is she Kakashi?" Gai asked as he looked over the silver haired man's shoulder worriedly.

_Not good. Not good at all Gai._ "She looks like she's lucky to be alive..." Kakashi breathed as he rewrapped the child and picked her back up and hugged her against his chest. She needed help. Like right now.

"I'm going to take her to the hospital. Take the rest of them to the tower and let their parents pick them up there. Tell Lord Hokage that I have Uzu, but don't say it in front of any of the parents." Kakashi said as he got to his feet, his heart thudding in his chest, he felt like he was starting to panic or something as he finished speaking and took off running as fast as he could towards the hospital.

He could'nt remember feeling so scared before. Probably because the child in his arms was all he had left in the world to lose.

And that terrified him beyond reason.


	7. the truth isuh?

Asuma looked the kids over one by one, his dark eyes studying them. They looked like they had just come back from a war zone or something. It was freaky, but not as freaky as the amount of blood on them. He might have asked whose blood it was, but he was afraid that he wasn't going to like the answer very much so he kept quiet until his eyes landed on the tall brown haired young man in the middle of the group.

He looked familiar. Eerily familiar. He stared hard at the teen and tried to figure out what his role in the kid's disappearance was, but for the life of him couldn't figure it out until the kid locked eyes with him. Asuma's jaw dropped as he had an insane moment of clarity. He knew this kid. He knew that he knew him but he couldn't recall where he had seen him until an Anbu appeared with the Third Hokage right behind him.

Asuma turned to look at his elderly father as he stomped over to the group looking pissed. "Alright you brats, where is he?" The elder growled as he stopped just with in arms reach of the kids and crossed his arms over his chest and looked like he was about ready to kill someone.

He had been on his way out to help find the children when Ebisu had come tearing through his front door screaming hysterically about his three year old grandson being missing. To say that he was displeased by that fact would be an understatement. "Where is who, Lord Hokage?" One of the kids, Shikamaru Nara asked the elder curiously as he tipped his head to the side a little bit.

The elder growled at the boy and took a threatening step forward and realised that one of the people in the group was just a bit taller, older looking, and simply didn't fit with the others at all. His dark eyes went strait to the brunette in the middle of the group and recognition sparked in his eyes. His jaw dropped and he stumbled forward stuttering and gaping like a gold fish.

"K-K-Ko-on-na-h-h-" Kona looked around the group of kids and pointed to himself with a wide eyed expression of innocence on his face as his grandfather grabbed his upper arms and jerked him forward away from the other kids and started patting him down in disbelief while stuttering barely inaudible words that could have been sentences, or even questions if he had simply followed through with the damn things instead of stopping half way through and shaking his head then muttering an 'Huh?' with a baffled look on his face.

Kona looked back at the others and felt a stab of guilt for putting his poor grandfather through this shit, but honestly he didn't know what he could do for him aside from wiping his mind later on and changing himself into a three year old, but then again he wouldn't fit in with the rest of the pre schoolers anymore so maybe that was pointless. Maybe.

"Hi grandpa." Kona said in a velvety sounding voice that was thick with emotion. The last thing he remembered of his grandfather was seeing his likeness on the mountain side cracking just moments before he was reported to have died and thinking, _I want to see you again Grandpa. So please don't die. _

But he had. And due to his age back then, Konahamaru hadn't been allowed to see his grandfather's body because Ebisu and Asuma amongst several others, had been totally convinced that if he had seen it he would have nightmares and wouldn't be able to function normally.

"H-How did this- What did you- Why are you so tall?" The elder all but shrieked at Kona, his normally soft pitched voice raising two or three octanes. Kona, true to his nature looked the elder in the eye and quickly came up with a lie to explain why he was so tall and looked so much older than his true current age.

"Well...ugh, you see grandpa it's like this..." Sarutobi stared at him, unblinking, with a frighteningly calm expression suddenly on his face and Asuma and Gai and the Anbu standing several feet away all moved back away from the elder. And for good reason since he looked like he was about ready to murder his grandson and the rest of the children. Damn the conciquinces. "I over heard someone talking about this...ugh, forbidden jutsu. And because I'm an _idiot_, and I want to be Hokage some day I thought that I would try it out-" He paused and took a shuddering breath as the elder narrowed his eyes at him with a cold calculating look on his face.

"I came out here to try the jutsu. I tried and tried to do it right several times, and it seemed as if nothing was happening...so I thought I would call it a day when suddenly-" He turned back to the group, his friends and watched in wary amusement as they parted like the red sea before Moses and revealed little Asuma to the elders eyes. The child blanched and tried to hide behind Sakura.

Which didn't work to well since Kona dragged him away from safety and security and into the open and handed the boy to his grandfather who took him and turned him this way and that, carefully examining the boy who was growing more and more afraid by the second. Sarutobi finally handed the boy off to Asuma who held the child at arms length and stared at him like he was an alien creature of some kind while Kona finished telling his slightly clever, and interesting lie.

"That kid appeared out of nowhere and everything started to look different. I got dizzy, and stumbled around for a second and then finally everything seemed okay again so I went to the pond over..." He looked around for a second then pointed to the east where a small lake was. "There and started to get a drink of water when I saw my reflection..."

"Cut the crap brat." Sarutobi snapped at the teen as he glared at him. He didn't believe Kona's story one little bit, and from the slightly scared look on the boy's face he knew that Kona knew this too. So why was his grandson lying to him? Did he think he would get mad at him for being honest or something? Or did he feel threatened in some way? "What did you do to yourself?"

"I wish I knew, grandpa. I really do. But I don't know what to tell you because I don't know what happened. All I do know is that I'm responsible for that little kid over there..." Kona said honestly as he rubbed the back of his neck nervously. God he wanted a smoke. Maybe he could bum one off of Shika when his grandpa wasn't looking a little later on.

Sarutobi took a deep breath and nodded, he'd beat the truth out of the brat later on if he had too, but he was starting to get the feeling that Kona really wasn't sure about what had happened to him. And that was bad, because whatever had done this to his grandson might have other negative affects on him.

He looked over the others and growled as he caught sight of the blood on their clothes, the ashes on their faces and read the tensness in their little bodies. They had gotten into some sort of mess. And they were nervous, tense and ready to fight or run if need be, meaning that they were expecting trouble in a big way. "Are any of you hurt?"

**_"No."_** Came the collective reply from the little ones and he sighed and felt some of his anger and worry drain away. Some, but not all of it. They were all acting oddly.

"Can any of you tell me what happened here? Why your covered in blood?"

The kids all exchanged looks, even Kona exchanged looks with them, all of them seeming to be communicating with each other silently. It lasted all of ten seconds and in that time Sarutobi thought he saw an demonic glow in their eyes changing them from their normal colors to a glittery kaleidoscope of colors ranging from pale purple, to pink, to red, and blue and green and golden yellow.

Even Konahamaru's eyes seemed to glow in the darkness for a second as they all said, **_"We were protecting Uzu-hime."_**And that was it, they said nothing more and Sarutobi made a panicked sound in the back of his throat and quickly said.

"Let's get all of you checked out at the hospital just to be on the safe side..." All the while wondering just how _far_in over his head he was with these kids. They were acting as if they were under genjutsu or something and it was starting to frighten him in a big way, because the only one who could create a genjutsu well enough and big enough to get all of the kids was Uzumaki.

And though her grades in school were utterly abysmal, even fools got lucky from time to time and he wasn't taking any chances.

"Inform the parents that they can pick up their kids at the hospital after their examined." The elder said to Gai and the Anbu. Both jumped and disappeared before he could say anything beyond those words. Leaving him and Asuma to herd the children towards the hospital.


	8. diagnosis

Kakashi was nearly out of his mind by the time the Hokage and Asuma herded the rest of the children through the hospital doors. Not that anyone could see his distress, he was rather well at hiding things behind his mask, but somehow he knew that the elder knew he was distraught. He wasn't sure what gave him away. The pacing, the cursing, or the fact that he was having trouble breathing and was close to tears.

"Kakashi?" Sarutobi said his name in a questioning tone and Kakashi stopped his pacing just long enough to give the elder a lost look. His mind tormenting him with images of Uzu laying in a coffin, pale, still, dead. Her lips colored with a soft pastel color to keep them from looking blue. Her coffin surrounded by a sea of white and blue flowers.

His heart ached in his chest and he nearly collapsed. _No. No. No. _He couldn't lose her. She was all that he had left. The only person in the world left that could tie him to his past, and bind him to his future. Losing the girl would kill him. Literally.

And if he didn't fall down dead when she died, he would probably murder everyone in the village then himself. "Kakashi? What's wrong? Why are you here?" Sarutobi asked as the man paced back and forth, pulling at his sliver hair, and muttering things under his breath as he went. He didn't stop moving except when several doctors came running up with blood, needles, and a crash cart.

Then Kakashi stopped. His every muscle frozen in place as the group of people entered the room that he had been pacing in front of and he let out a loud keening sound and looked at the floor, his one eye closing for a second as grief welled up in his chest, threatening to overwhelm him and shatter his heart into pieces.

"Kakashi! Tell me what's wrong!" The elder demanded as he grabbd the younger man and shook him a little bit.

"It must be Uzumaki..." Asuma said after a second or so and Sarutobi turned to look at his son.

"What about her?"

Asuma cringed and looked around for the nearest exit. Dammit, he knew that he had forgotten something a little while ago. He had forgotten to tell his father that the little Biiju was wounded! _Oh man, I do not want to be here right now. Not one little bit... _Because the Hokage was going to go mid evil on his ass and everyone else's ass while he was at it. The only people who would be safe from the old man's wrath were Kakashi and Uzumaki herself, because she was wounded, and Kakashi was starting to lose his mind.

"Uh...I f-forgot to uh..." Sarutobi looked at his son with a mean look on his face. Anyone who could see the old man this upset and live was indeed a lucky person. Asuma thought darkly.

"What did you forget Asuma?" Sarutobi asked as he pushed Kakashi down in the nearest chair and pushed the younger man's head between his knees when he started hyperventilating. Dear god what was wrong with his people all of a sudden? They were literally falling apart at the seams!

_My spine. I forgot my spine. Have you seen it anywhere? And could you maybe help me find my balls too? _Asuma thought as he gulped and mumbled. "Uzumaki-chan was found hurt rather _badly_...sir-" Asuma said weakly as his father advanced on him and he backed away from the man in a panic. _Oh god. _He was going to die, wasn't he? His father, his Kage, was going to kill him!

He suddenly regretted all of the 'best father' and 'father of the year' stuff that he had given to the man when he was a kid. Strangely enough the elder didn't even touch him, but then he didn't really have to to hurt him or kill him. He just had to focus his chakra and cut him to ribbons with it. Yet he didn't do that either. He just stood there for a second looking torn, part of him was sadistic enough to _want_ to terrorise his son and the other less _evil _part of him was worried about Uzumaki.

If she had been hurt and needed help, she could have panicked and cast a genjutsu big enough and elaborate enough to affect the other children and bring them to her aid. If that was the case then he would only have to break the genjutsu and let the kids go home with their parents. No harm, no foul.

No punishment needed to get the girl in hand. "How badly was she hurt?" Sarutobi asked as he turned to look at Kakashi. The jounin looked up at him for a second and tried to calm down his racing heart and steady his breathing, but he was having trouble since it felt like his body was being jerked every which way.

"Chakra deprivation, exhaustion, one stab wound to the ribs, one partially healed lung, four fractures, a concussion, and some other things." Sakura said as an image of her friends shirt, fused to her skin flashed through her mind. The Hokage looked at her, a strange look crossing his face as he stared at her. She almost smiled at him, knowing that he was'nt called the Professor for nothing. He was already starting to get an idea or several hundred of them, about what was going on. But he wouldn't be able to prove it just yet unless they decided to help him along. Something that wasn't very likely since the nins and adults of the village weren't to be trusted with Uzu's life.

"Many of the wounds were half healed. But she may may be down for several days, and even if she wakes up after that, she won't be able to defend herself for the next few weeks-ah!" Ino elbowed her in the ribs, hard and beside the blond girl Lee growled low and feral in his throat as he turned his head to look at his lover.

His eyes silently asking. _"Are you insane?"_

Because there could only be one crazy person in the group and he wasn't the type to be out done.

"Will her wounds kill her?" Kakashi asked after several minutes of total silence, he looked at Sakura with such a bleak look on his face. Sakura studied him for a second and thought, _Even now? _Kakashi was in love with Uzu even now and he wasn't even aware of it. It was both sad and amusing, and Sakura silently vowed to needle the man at every turn just to be mean as she answered his question.

"No. Though they are serious, she has an unnatural ability to heal herself almost instantly. It will take _much_ more than _those _wounds to kill her." Kakashi gave her a quick nod and turned his head to stare at the door in front of him.


	9. unpleasent memories of war

Four days.

Four long, bleak, terrifying days had passed since the kids had gone missing, been found, poked, prodded and turned every which way before being released into their parents care while Uzu remained in the hospital.

Kakashi sat at the foot of the bed staring blankly ahead at the little girl, waiting, praying and hoping against hope that she would open her eyes soon and be okay. She had spent three out of the four days in ICU before her wounds had healed enough for her to be moved to a normal room and simply left alone to rest. And in that three days Kakashi had punched out five doctors, thrown kunai at ten nurses and threatened to kill _everyone_ in the hospital if the doctors and nurses didn't do their damn jobs and save the little girl's life.

He had bullied, black mailed, and done everything humanly possible to ensure the child's comfort and safety from the would be killers walking the halls of the hospital and had already had six-count them. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. _Six_-assassination attempts by people who thought that attacking the girl now would get rid of the village problem.

He had slept a grand total of two hours in the past four days and his mind was just a bit off. There were _three_ dead, and decaying bodies piled in the floor across the room and three more bodies unaccounted for. The walls were spattered with blood, just like his face, his hands, and clothes were.

He hadn't bothered to simply hand Uzu's attackers over, he had killed them, ripped them apart, and left them in the corner where he could throw kunai at them when he got bored. So far today had been uneventful aside from scarring several nurses for life when they had tried to hit on him, and he had gotten pissed and picked up one of the bodies and thrown it at them to get them to go away.

It had worked like a charm, but now he regretted doing so because no one had come in to check on Uzu in over six hours and he was starting to feel antsy.

The small figure made a moaning sound in her sleep and turned over onto her right side and Kakashi was on his feet in an instant and standing by the bedside. His heart thudding frantically in his chest and his dark blue eye flickering over the girl's face anxiously. Was she waking up? That sort of sounded like the I-don't-wanna-get-out-of-bed-and-go-to-school moan to him.

He bit his bottom lip and leaned over the girl and hesitantly brushed his fingertips across her cheek and whispered her name. "Uzu?" She twitched under his fingers and he felt his heart kick into over drive as she stirred a little bit and opened her eyes just for a second and looked at him before closing them again.

It was'nt an answer. It was'nt a smile or anything of great signifigance, but Kakashi suddenly felt much calmer than he had in the past four days. His anxiousness, anger and fear all melted away and he smiled a bit and pulled the covers that she had thrown off earlier up over her shoulder and moved away from the bed, walking across the room he grabbed one of the bodies and picked it up.

If his angel was going to wake up in this damned room then he was going to have to clean up his mess so that she didn't get scared of him. He'd have to dispose of the bodies, scrub the blood from the walls and floors, take a shower and get the shit off of his skin and change into some clean clothes. He wanted to make a good first impression on her. He _wanted _to look like a person when she woke up instead of some phycho.

Although in his defense he was pretty sure that he _was_a phycho at this point. But at least he was a semi nice one, right. Right? _Right? _He slung the corpse over his shoulder and shushined out of the hospital and to some remote place outside of the village where he liked to dump his victims bodies from time to time. He dropped the man's body in a pre dug hole that he had made about a week or so ago out fo habit and returned to the hospital room to grab the other two and vanished again.

He'd burn the bodies, pour lime on them and bury them just to be on the safe side. The entire body disposal would need an entire thirty minutes or so of his time and attention. Much too long for him to stay gone so he would have to use some of his jutsu to get things done faster.

(****************************************************************************************************************************************************)

Kona walked down the halls of the hospital with chibi Gaara trailing along beside him. Both of them carrying flowers for Uzu.

It had been four days since Kona had last seen the blond and from what he had understood of things when Sakura had spoken to him earlier they guys had all taken turns sneaking out of their homes at night and had sat outside of the girl's room window and watched her from there to monitor her health and needs. They hadn't felt the need to step in because Kakashi had had pretty much everything covered though they had been just a little bit surprised to see the man kill six people and bully a bunch of others just to get his way.

It was both scary and amusing to the lot of them. At least it had been until Sakura had filled them in on Kakashi's genki genkai trait.

His blood line limit was an odd one that could only be activated by the Hokage and a group of omniou mystics because it was so powerful that if it wasn't focused on something specific it could easily cause a phycotic break and the eventual mass murder of everyone around him.

Sakura had gone on to say that the blood line limit hadn't been active since Kakashi's days as an Anbu, but that if he was attacking people _now _then he must have naturally tapped into it's power and was using it to try and protect the only person he considered to be his family.

Shika had sighed and growled about troublesome men and their need to please their women and stomped off for a little while leaving everyone to wonder why he was so irritated about the information. But Gaara and Kona understood.

Shika was like them.

He was at least half in love with Uzu. Because he never would have put up with her if he wasn't. And while he had been gone Kona had had a little talk with Gaara and come to the conclusion that since they were back in the past and Uzu and Kakashi weren't together yet...

Well it didn't take a genus to figure out what Kona had been thinking. Though he had sort of nearly died of shock with Gaara had suggested that they share her. "So we're really going to formally announce our courtship to her?" Gaara asked curiously. Kona looked down at him and smiled. The young Kage sounded so puzzled. It was sort of cute really.

"Yup. You can't think to woo a girl if she doesn't know that your interested." Kona said with a crooked grin. Gaara looked doubtful then asked.

"So how do you let her know that you _are _interested?"

Kona looked at the little red head and stopped walking. "How old are you again Gaara?"

"Twenty three."

"And you've never gone on a date? Flirted? Gotten really drunk and gone home with a total stranger and had your world rocked?"

Gaara glared at him. Was Kona trying to poke fun at him? Cause if so, he'd push out out of the highest window the next time they were walking through some building together. Or he could just use his sand jutsu to pummel the boy into a bloody pile of broken bones and do things his way.

"No. A little bit...once. And no."

"And you're really Twenty three?" Was the man a saint or something? Kona would go crazy if he didn't have three very necessary things.

1)Smokes.

2)Someone to pick on.

3)And sex.

Lots of it. To Kona, there was no better way to waste time of make yourself feel nice. This had never been truer than during the war when the copulation had been encourage so that the few women of the village could breed a new generation while the older one fought for their survival. The idea behind this was to give the people hope that their way of life would continue and the will fo fire would still burn.

It had worked for a little while but many of the women were taken by the enemy, raped, murdered, had their bodies cut open and the infants inside of them ripped out and killed. It had been horrible. Kona had never been so pissed as when he had found the body of one woman.

She had been a pretty little thing about his age and for a while he and the girl had lived together until she had gotten pregnant. He remembered hugging her and telling her that he would take care of her when he found out, because her boyfriend had died in the field a week or so earlier.

He had been all set to marry her and help raise the baby when she had been grabbed while out looking for medicinal herbs.

He had been so pissed once he had found out that he had asked Uzu to back him up and an hour later the two of them had stormed the enemy camp and butchered over fifty men in their efforts to reach her. But it was too late.

His woman and his child were both found in an open shallow grave, dead. Kona had screamed and cried for hours, long after a search party had come looking for them. It had just been so unfair!

The woman had'nt done anything wrong. The baby had'nt done anything wrong. And yet neither of them had been spared.

Yet he was a bit grateful that he had met the woman and got to know her. He was also grateful to Uzu for not leaving him alone at that time. If she had, he might have killed himself in his grief.

He owed the girl. He owed her more than he could ever say. Or repay. Which was why he had decided that he would make the most out of hsi second chance and protect everyone closest to him. His grandpa, his uncle, Uzu and the others.

Gaara reached out and pinched Kona's leg. The teen yelped and growled at him. The look on his face going from happy go lucky to annoyed in zero point two seconds. Gaara blinked at him and cocked his head. For a moment there Kona had had such a haunted expression on his face that Gaara had started to wonder what it was that the teen had been thinking about.

"Are you okay Kona?" Gaara asked as the teen blinked at him and looked around for a second as if he were a bit suprised to be...well, there.

"Yeah, man. I'm fine. Lets go woo our girl." _If I don't get some action soon I'm going to go out of my mind._


	10. questions

There may be a lemon in this chapter. Maybe. And because I don't really pay attention when i'm writing then I thought that I would warn you now before I start.

If there is a lemon it will be between Uzu/Kona with a little bit of Gaara in there. Or not. Whatever, you know.

(*****************************************************************************************************************************************************************)

Kona and Gaara walked into Uzu's hospital room and automatically cringed at the sight of the blood on the floor, walls and the ceiling. Uzu lay in the bed, perfectly still. Still sound asleep. The girl had been dead to the world for the past four days and by Kona and Gaara's rough estimate she should be waking up at any minute.

Kona looked around the room and sighed. Dear god, why was Kakashi allowed to run around free when shit like this happened? Kona wondered as he looked down at Gaara. "We can't let her wake up here, like this. It will bring back bad memories for her." The Kage said and Kona nodded his head in agreement. Gaara was right, they couldn't let their princess wake up in this place. Not with the smell of decay, and the sight of freshly spilled blood everywhere.

Kona handed Gaara his flowers and walked over to the bed and slipped one arm under Uzu's shoulders and the other under her knees and picked her up. Kona's eyes went wide as he scooped Uzu up off fo the bed. Jesus Christ, she was so small! The bones in her body felt delicate under her skin and he suddenly felt very self conscious about holding her. She felt like glass to him. So very delicate, and so easily broken.

He would have to be careful with her once he took her as his lover. Especially since she would have to stay in her child form so that he wouldn't have to worry about getting her pregnant. "Okay, so where do we take her?" Kona asked the red head. Gaara gave him a 'Don't ask me' look.

"We could take her back to her place and spruce it up a bit." Maybe scatter rose petals around the bed as she slept there.

Kona cocked his head and thought about it. They could do that. God knew that the place was isolated enough. And if they got paranoid about someone stopping by, they could put up a privacy barrier until they were ready to leave. "That could work." Kona said since he had swung by her place yesterday night and picked up and cleaned the apartment while no one was around. He didn't want Uzu to come home to a bunch of broken furniture and shattered glass.

He had gone out and even bought some new clothes, lamps, dishes, and a new couch and bed for her. The bed and couch had been delivered earlier by Lee, Sakura, Neji, Kiba, and Shino over an hour ago. The two teliported out of the hospital with Uzu, and reappeared in her apartment. They expected the others to show up at her place later tonight so until then they would pretty much have the run of the place.

Kona walked through the apartment, checking out the new paint job on the walls. It looked like Lee had dropped by some time late yesterday night after he had left. He could see one of Lee's favorite calling cards sitting on one of the tables against the wall. A little piece of paper with a smiley face drawn on it in blood red ink.

Kona might have been amused if it didn't shake him up inside.

Lee had lost his mind. Literally.

It had happened shortly after Gai and Tenten had been killed. Lee and Sakura had been captured and he had been forced to watch Sakura being tortured. He had snapped and had killed everyone of the enemy and carried Sakura out of the camp and back to where the rest of them were waiting for them and had stayed by her side through the coma, the physical therapy, and had become her lover despite the damage done to his mind and Sakura's body and heart.

The only comfort that Kona had about the jounin's state of mind was that he could still recognise the people who meant something to him. He still liked Neji. Hinata and the others. But it was Sakura and Uzu that he loved the most which was why he tended to stay close to one or the other, depending on which one he was closest too at the time.

He was a scary S.O.B. around _anyone_ and _everyone_ else.

Kona carried Uzu back to her bedroom and put her to bed so that she could be comfortable. Brushing her hair back from her face as she snuggled up under the sheets and sighed as he kissed her cheek. She moaned softly and turned over onto her back causing his lips to brush across hers. Kona jerked at the contact and straitened his spine and licked his lips. Damn, he had'nt expected that to happen.

His lips tingled and his heart was pounding in his chest and he suddenly felt just a bit nervous. He wasn't sure if being Uzu's lover was doing the right thing, he knew that she loved Kakashi, and that no one could ever replace the man in her heart. To be perfectly honest he wouldn't even dream of trying to replace the man in her life or her heart.

But everyone had agreed that Uzu needed to be watched and protected. So yeah, he sort of had ulterior motives for wanting to take the woman as his lover, but he figured that she knew him well enough to figure out that he was just trying to keep an eye on her because he cared about her.

The whole sex part...

Well, if she didn't mind him fucking her, then who was he to argue. Though he would have to be careful of how he treated her since she wasn't like the other women that he had had up to this point. She was a lady. And if he didn't treat her like one, he would be a dead man with in a week. Because everyone else would kill him.

He and Gaara hung around the apartment for about two in a half hours before Uzu finally woke up and came shuffling into the living room looking adorably tousled with a sleepy, sexy look on her face. "Uzu!" Gaara said happily as he jumped off of the couch and ran across the room and grabbed the blond up in a hug. Kona turned off the TV and set the remote aside and stood up.

"Hey Nee-chan. How are you feeling?" Kona asked as he walked over to her as gaara let her go. Uzu looked up at him and frowned.

"A little lost. What's going on? Did you guys find out what year it is? Why am I a kid again?"

Kona bent down and picked her up and cradled her in his arms and cooed. "Because you're so cute like this widdle chibi."

"Say that again and I'm going to shank you in the liver or something." Uzu growled at him and Kona snickered and set her down on the couch and sat down on one side of her while Gaara took the other.

"Okay, baby. Long story short, we've been tossed back in time to when everyone is about nine. Three years before all of you graduated the academy. You look like a kid again because you've been placed under a solid hedge so that you appear, and feel as a kid."

"So we're in the year 2000?" Uzu asked in confusion as she glanced at the calender across the room, noting the date.

"Yup." Kona said with a grin as Uzu looked around the room and frowned.

"Who's place are we in?"

"Yours. I took some time to come over late last night and picked up the broken glass and went out and got you some new furniture. Lee came over after I left and repainted the place for you."

Uzu blinked. Well, that explained why she could sort of smell wet paint, it wasn't very strong which meant that Lee must have aired the place out before he left. He had done a good job of painting the place too. She had noticed that the bedroom walls were no longer the bright sunny, eye catching blinding yellow that it should have been. Instead it was a soft sky blue with cream and dark blue trim. Her curtains were different. Even the clothes in the closet were different.

Some of them dark like she preferred while others were light in color ranging from soft pinks, blues, purples, and pretty violets, to soft turquoise blue and white. She had even noted that there were several dresses in the closet that shouldn't have been there, and for a second or so had been worried that she had been kidnapped or something and had come looking for the person or person's responsible.

"I see. Well I guess that answers those questions... So I have to act like a kid again?"

"Yes and no."

"Explain."

"It would be stupid to act like a kid when you aren't, not to mention tiring and frustrating so Shika has decided that everyone should act their age despite how they look. He figures that it's the best way to shake things up and show some of you're natural abilities. However he did say that you couldn't use your Shairgan, your sage jutsu, or any of your other really impressive jutsu. At least not while someone is watching. You can more or less do as you like when your alone."

Uzu nodded and Gaara grasped her hand and squeezed it. "Is there anything else that I should know?" Uzu asked and Kona exchanged a look with Gaara.

"Yes. A few things. But we can't tell you everything because Shika and Sakura have threatened to send Lee after us if we told you, so you'll have to talk to him about some of it. But we have something that _we _wanted to talk to you about."

"Alright."

Kona took a deep breath and tried not to look as nervous as he felt, but it was easier said than done while Uzu was looking at him. She simply had this weird ability to mess with his heart and mind without saying a single word. All she had to do was look at him and he started to fall apart. "We were talking and-"

"Say it right." Uzu snapped in irritation.


	11. the love hate relationship

"Then say it right." Uzu growled in irritation.

"Alright-" Kona said softly. "We want to be you're lovers." He said as Uzu turned her head to look at him, she had such an unfathomable expression on her pretty face.

"No." Uzu said after a second or so, and stood up to stretch.

"Why not?" Kona asked in irritation as she stretched her arms high over her head and arched her back, causing her hospital shirt to ride up and show the pale blue panties that she was wearing under the shirt.

Kona growled and fisted his hands in his lap. The stupid woman should be more careful of doing such things around others or she might end up getting ravished.

Kona started to get some really interesting idea's of what to so with her. He could see her on her hands and knees, her tempting little mouth wrapped around his cock as he used a shadow clone to fuck her doggy style.

He could see her on her back, her face flushed, her lips swollen, her soft skin littered with love bites as he gripped her hips and rammed his aching cock inside of her tight, slick heat over and over again. Making her scream for him. Making her beg him to fill her with his hot sticky cum.

He'd bet she would look drop dead georgous covered in his cum.

The sound of her annoyed voice cut through his thought, bringing him back to reality. "Because I believe in fidelity. I love Kakashi, there for he is the only one that I want in such a way."

"And no one can compare to him." Kona said darkly. He was of half a mind to throw her over his shoulder and show her that Kakashi was'nt the only male that could make her beg for it.

Uzu glanced at Kona from over her shoulder, a frown on her face. What was her little Kona up too? She wondered curiously as she answered him. "That's right. Besides, Kona, I'm not the type of woman that sleeps around for fun."

She had never been a very promiscuous person. Even before she and Kakashi had gotten together. She had only slept with one person, and that was Genma.

"I'm aware of that Uzu-hime." And he was. Uzu just wasn't the type of person to sleep around. She'd rather look for something real instead of being used for a short time. She would rather invest her time and her heart in something that she thought would honestly work out.

"But Uzu, you must understand..." Gaara started to say when Kona reached out absent mindedly and put his hand over the young Kage's mouth and silenced him and said.

"Kakashi doesn't know you in this time line, Uzu. And he certainly doesn't love you... He's probably fucking one of the village women at this very minute-" It was a low blow, even by his standards. And he could see how much his remark wounded Uzu by the way she stiffened as she turned around. It only took a second for his words to register in her mind and for her expression to darken, her small hand lifted into the air and without any warning at all, she slapped him. Hard.

Kona's head snapped the the right, and his cheek throbbed and burned like fire as he blunk back tears.

Ow. Ow. _Owww_.

He deserved that.

Really he did. But he had to make her understand that things weren't the way they had been before. Kakashi really didn't know her. He really didn't love her. Not currently anyways. He needed to make her understand that pining for him, and later trying to approach him would only get her hurt even more. And he didn't want that.

He wanted her to be patient and let Kakashi come to her. But at the same time he wanted her to take the time to enjoy her second chance at happiness. He wanted her to get out and live a little.

Uzu glared at him like she'd like to kill him, and Kona was about to say something else when he noticed her eyes had teared up and some of the moisture had slipped down her face.

His heart ached in his chest, and he reached out and picked the distraught blond up. Uzu gave a startled squeak and tried to get free of his grasp as he set her in his lap, straddling his thighs, and silently prayed that she wouldn't notice the hard on he had right now, and hugged her.

"Don't cry. _Please_, don't cry." He said softly as he tangled his fingers in her soft pale blond hair and kissed her temple, her cheeks, then her lips.

Uzu went completely still in his arms, her mind registering the gentle pressure of his lips against her own, with shock. A low whimpering sound escaping her throat as he licked along her lower lip, seeking entrance to her mouth. She didn't give in. But then he hadn't really expected her too.

She was simply too sweet to bother doing something so wicked as sleeping with someone else, even if Kakashi didn't know or love her at the moment. She still knew and loved him enough to stay faithful to him. Kona growled in irritation as jealousy spiked his blood. He would _kill _to have a girl like Uzu as his own.

Someone who would'nt run around on him and fuck everything with a cock and two legs.

He envied Kakashi's good luck at snagging Uzu for his own. He lifted his mouth a little bit and gripped her face in his fingers and squeezed, letting his finger tips bite into her cheeks as he forced her mouth open. Uzu glared at him as he forced her lips to part and pressed his mouth against hers again, slipping his tongue inside to taste her fully. She growled and tried to bite down, but he hadn't let go of her yet, apparently knowing that she would bite him if he did.

The cheeky little punk was starting to get on her nerves. So she did the only thing that she could think of, she punched him in the stomach.

Kona jerked, his body spasming a bit as she planted her small fist in his stomach. He growled and squeezed her cheeks painfully and let her go and sat there panting and swearing as she scrambled out of his lap and across the room looking pissed. "You son of a-" She started to say and stopped when Kona bared his teeth in a feral smile.

God she was perfect.

He licked his lips, tasting her essence on them. "Don't. Insult. My. Mother. _Princess_." Because he'd have to punish her if she did. Just like he had punished one of his childhood friends for saying the same thing. Kona had put him in the hospital for his cruel words, and had come damn close to killing him.

But he could'nt do such a thing to Uzu, because she was as precious to him as the memory of his lost love. And he would do anything for her. Uzu pointed at the door and growled at him. "Get out." Kona looked like he wanted to argue but the look on her pretty face stopped him cold. She was furious with him for taking such liberties. And he found her feminine fury absolutely adorable.

Which was part of the problem. He wanted to stay and push her buttons just a little more. But if he did he had no doubt in his mind that in her current state of 'dislike' of him, she would shove a kunai up his ass and twist it. So the only reasonable, and sane thing to do was to leave and let her settle down.

He stood up and lazily walked over to the door and looked back when Gaara started to stand up and she snapped, "You stay put red!" Gaara stared at her wide eyed and slowly, very, very slowly, sat back down and tried not to look frightened. Kona grinned at the young Kage and opened the door.

"I'll be back for your dried up husk of a corpse in a few hours. Have fun killing him Hime!" And slipped ouyt the door as Uzu let out an infuriated scream and threw something at the back of his head. It hit the door as it shut and he cringed when he heard whatever it was shatter.

Wow, she was mega pissed. And that meant that if he was a wise man he'd lay low for the next month to let her calm down. But he had never been a wise man. He specialised in being a wise ass, but not a wise man. So he would be back at her place before night fall looking for food and nice body to cozy up to like he always did.


	12. the insane watch dog

Two bodies slammed into the wall next to the bedroom door, both straining, pulling and tugging at the others clothes. Pale slender fingers tangled in thick nearly waist length black as a hand slipped under the others skirt and a low feral sound escaped the male as he tore his mouth from the soft pink lips of his lover to latch onto the coral pink nipple of one of her breasts and sucked.

Earning a shocked gasp from the pinkette. She held his head in place and reached down with her other hand and stroked his throbbing cock through his pants causing him to bite down on her breast just a little bit. "Ah! Lee!" Sakura yelped as he let go of the tender skin and licked the soreness away.

His Sakura. His Sakura was alive. He hadn't lost her in the war. In the prison. Hadn't lost her to the torture that had all but ravaged her body, leaving it littered with scars. He lifted his head from her chest and kissed her mouth hungrily, it felt like it had been forever since they had last been together like this. He'd missed her. He'd missed her so damn much. He couldn't wait any more.

He grabbed her slender shoulders and easily tossed her onto his bed and quickly ditched his pants and pounced on her. She gave a startled squeak as he pinned her down and kissed her again as he ripped a hole along the seam in her shorts and quickly thrust inside of her and froze. She screamed and arched under him and he hugged her tightly and kissed the scar on her shoulder, then the one on her chest, directly over her heart while he used his hands to caress the acid burns and whip scars littering her back.

Tracing another one with his tongue until she whimpered and tried to get him to move. He growled again and bit down on her shoulder roughly and started thrusting as fast and hard as he could. He needed to feel her softness crushed against him, her juices running down his thighs. He needed to hear her screams as he fucked her as if he thought he was going to lose her at any second.

He wanted to feel the same connection to her that he once felt before his sanity had shattered into pieces. She cried, screamed and moaned for him, and he buried his face against her throat and cried because he had almost lost her. Because he loved her and had been too weak to protect her. Because he was too weak to walk away form her and let her find peace and stability with someone that could take care of her properly.

He cried because they were both almost broken, and only had one puropse left in life to make them feel useful. _Uzu. _Uzu-hime had become their purpose before the war had started. She had become their savior, they _owed _her everything, they had to make sure that her sacrifices weren't in vain.

Because if she wasn't happy, if she died, _their _sacrifices were in vain.

She came sobbing his name, her fingernails scoring his back, making him twitch and hiss as pleasure and pain blended together. He groaned her name and shuddered spilling his seed inside of her body as it clenched around him and hugged her to his chest even after he was finished, he just couldn't bear to let go of her. "Lee..." He lifted his head and peeked at her face from under his bangs and saw her smile faintly and felt his heart do a strange flip flop in his chest and was about to ask her what was on her mind when the front door down the hall slammed open. He jerked upright and bared his teeth in a silent snarl and rolled off of her and grabbed a kunai that he had taped under one of the tables in his bedroom the other night when the Anbu had brought him home and walked down the hall.

Not caring that he was half naked, or that Sakura had grabbed a kunai and was right behind him. He paused in the darkened hallway and turned his head to glance at her over the top of his shoulder, his dark eyes cold and unblinking. He twitched the fingers of his other hand, a silent warning to Sakura.

_Stay behind me, no matter what. _

He may have failed to protect her the last time, but he wouldn't fail again. She reached out and grabbed his free hand, stunning him just a little bit. She hadn't grabbed his hadn't since the time before they had been separated in the prison cells. She had been so scared then. He turned his head and glanced at her again and frowned when he saw the calm look on her face.

She didn't seem very scared now, but after facing the hell that they had been in before, not much seemed to scare either of them anymore. Not unless it was Uzu-hime's health.

That scared them both to no end.

He squeezed her fingers gently and used his arm to push her back against the wall next to him, placing his body before her own, intending to use himself as a shield if need be. He cocked his head and listened to the faint sound of foot falls as the intruder messed around in his kitchen. He frowned and motioned for Sakura to _stay put_. There would be hell to pay if she didn't listen. The intruder was a trained killer, he could tell by the faint almost silent foot steps that the person there was either a jounin or an Anbu. It didn't really matter to Lee any, he could take on a group of sixty jounin and thirty Anbu before he was ever taken down, so he was fairly certain that he would make short work of this one.

She gave him a dark look that made him want to smile as he dropped his arm from her chest and stepped out into the open and ducked down beside the couch and snuck around the back, heading towards the kitchen. He moved in even closer and flattened his back against the island as he heard someone mumble something about 'damn sandwich meats being partually frozen' and frowned again.

He knew that voice.

It was Kona.

He popped up directly in front of the teen and grabbed him as he went to open the mustard bottle. Kona nearly jumped out of his skin and screamed then took several deep breaths and glared at Lee who was grinning evilly at him. "You're a son of a bitch." Kona snapped as he jerked his wrists out of Lee's hands and slammed the mustard bottle down on the counter and put a slightly shaky hand over his chest.

Lee made a breathless snickering sound.

Ah. He loved tormenting Kona. The boy was just so easy to drive up the wall. Lee lifted his hand and quickly signed, _"What are you doing here?"_

Kona gave Lee an irritated look. "Feeling the _need _to drag you out behind the shed outside and kick _your _ass, that's what I'm doing here." Lee tipped his head to the side, letting his long dark hair slid over his left shoulder.

What had he done to irritate Kona this time? He wondered with an amused expression as Kona took another deep breath and finally seemed to calm himself enough to answer Lee civilly. A good thing too since Lee was about to knock his teeth down his throat. He _hated _it when others spoke to him in such a cold tone. It reminded him all too much of his time in captivity and the things that had caused his mind to break down.

"Uzu threw me out of her place. I figured that I would come here and sort of kill time." Lee cocked his head and studied Kona. Something about what he had said sort of set warning bells off in his mind. Lee glanced back behind him and saw Sakura standing there holding his pants. Kona turned beet red and made a choking sound.

"Are you fucking kidding me man? You came out here and scared me while not even wearing any pants! At least tell me that you're wearing boxers..." Lee looked as innocent as could be as he stepped back away from the counter and Kona let out a loud, shrill almost girly scream and covered his face.

Sakura and Lee both snickered as he took his pants from her and pulled them on and zipped them up. She kissed him and told him to go check on Uzu-hime and he gave her a shy smile and kissed her cheek and signed that he'd be back in a few. Sakura told him to go ahead and wait for her there and she'd come to him. Lee nodded and gave Kona a mean look then broke the transformation jutsu and changed himself back into an adult and vanished.

He was'nt worried about being caught.

Because no one would ever catch him _again_.

(***************************************************************************************************************************************************************)

Kakashi tugged at the collar of his clean shirt and stared at the empty bed and sighed.

Well, he hadn't expected this to happen. But then again he wasn't exactly surprised that _this_ had happened.

He had just come back from disposing of the dead bodies and found the hospital staff in a tizzy. Apparently Uzumaki had been M.I.A. ever since he had left the hospital for the last time earlier. Again, he wished that he could be surprised. But he wasn't.

The girl had a odd knack for disappearing from safe places when she _felt _like it. Regardless of weather it was for her own good or not. He sniffed the air in the room and caught several familiar scents in the room. One belonged to the little red head that was found the other night with the rest of the kids. What was his name? Sabukou no Gaara? The Saunagature jinchuriki. The other scent belonged to the young man, the teen that had been identified as the Hokage's grandson.

He moved around the empty room and checked to see if any of Uzu's things were missing. He opened the small locker across form the bed and peeked inisde and growled in irritation. Her clothes were gone. The bloody vest that had been wrapped around her small body was missing. Even the weapons that she had been carrying, were gone.

He closed the locker softly and very quietly and calmly walked back out of the room. He would swing by a few places and see if he could find her and once he did, he'd check on her then call it a day.

He'd have to introduce himself to her at a different time.

(****************************************************************************************************************************************************************)

Gaara backed himself into the very darkest corner and stared at the upset blond girl in front of him and gulped. This is not the way he imagined it would be when Kona had said that they should make their feelings known to Uzu. In fact he had thought that she would blush, stammer a little bit and curl up against his side like she often did. He had sort of missed that when the war had started. He'd been so busy trying to hold back the next wave and keep his people alive that he hadn't had the time to sit down and enjoy much of anything.

He had taken every chance to go see Uzu. But he had constantly been on guard and had'nt been able to relax.

Sort of like now. She looked really, _really _pissed and if he relaxed even in the slightest, she'd crush him. Like a bug. "Alright red..." Uzu said with a feral looking smile on her face, her violet eyes flashing a deep vivid red for a second, and Gaara almost wet himself. He knew the horrors that followed that look! "Who's brilliant idea was it to make me their sex kitten?" Uzu asked in a dangerously low voice.

Gaara cowered and was about to say that it had been both of their idea's but he wanted to live and damn Kona for leaving him alone with her like this. "It was Kona. It was all Kona. I told him not to do it."

It was true, he had rejected the idea at the beginning. But the more Kona had talked about it the more the idea had sort of grown on him. And he did like Uzu. Maybe as a sister. Maybe as a friend. Maybe as a lover-

He didn't really know anymore. It was hard for him to tell the difference between one feeling and another. Which was also why he had decided to go along with Kona's plan. But now he could see how upset she was, and how her anger was momentarily focused on him, and he wanted to _kick Kona's ass_.

How dare he get him-the Kazakage into trouble with the only girl that terrified him! Uzu stared at him for several seconds and was about to punch him when she heard her apartment door open a little bit and growled as she turned to see just _who_ was disturbing her now and sighed tiredly when she saw Lee standing in her front door in his adult form, looking worried.

_Crap._

Her not so sane watch dog silently watched her from the door for a second or so before rolling his broad shoulders and stepping into the apartment and quietly shutting the door behind him. She huffed a little and turned to look at Gaara again and growled when she saw a stream of sand snaking it's way out of the nearest window, leaving the spot that he had just been in, empty.

_Son of a bitch!_

"Dammit Gaara you better come back here right fucking now!" Uzu yelled warningly. She wasn't done yelling at him yet.

Lee shook his head in wary amusement. _Man, oh man._ Out of the hospital for less than a day and she was already terrorizing her red headed shadow. He walked across the room and bent down and snatched her up off of the floor and cuddled her against his chest. She growled, letting him know that she was in bad spirits right now and he bent his head and buried his face against the side of her neck and breathed on her knowing that she was ticklish and would lighten up.

She squirmed and fought him for a second, trying to get loose. But it was no good, he was holding her too tightly and his breath felt so warm and wet and-she shrieked and jerked a little bit and laughed. He smiled and lifted his head a little bit and kissed her cheek like he would a real child and carried her back to her bedroom and dropped her onto the bed. She hit the mattress and bounced a few times her laughter slowly fading away as he slipped off his shoes and set them aside.

"Lee. Why are you here? Shouldn't you be spending time with Sakura-chan?" Lee looked at Uzu and shrugged his shoulders. It didn't really matter if he missed a little bit of time with Sakura. Especially since she had sent him over here and she was planning to stop by later and check up on Uzu since her chakra levels were still supposedly dangerously low.

And if he left and something happened to Uzu he would never be able to live with himself. So it would be in his best interest-no, in everyone's best interest if he stuck around for a bit and took care of her.

_"We were worried."_ He signed to her as he reached out and used the back of his hand to gently push her over a little bit and stretched out on the bed beside her.

Uzu made a huffing sound as he blocked her in on the bed and knew that if she tried to leave the bed, he'd tie her to the damn thing. He obviously thought that putting her to bed was the best way to let her rest and to kill time. But she wasn't sleepy. "Why were you worried?" Uzu asked Lee curiously as he shifted around a little bit and finally managed to get comfortable. After stealing one of her nice cushy pillows.

He looked at her and reached up and shifted his fingers through her soft hair, lightly brushing his palm across her cheek before hooking his hand around her nape and gently pulling her down so that she flopped over onto her stomach on the bed and jerked the covers up over her legs and then turned over and threw an arm across her little back.

He could list any number of reasons that he might have been worried, but he didn't really care too. So instead he opted to just lay there and hold her down until she tired herself out. It was actually the safest and easiest way to make her settle down, especially since her chakra was so out of whack. She squirmed and tried to get up, but the heavy weight of his arm kept pushing her back down. It took about thirty minutes or so for Uzu to wear herself out and get frustrated enough to start crying.

She buried her little face against the mattress and sobbed quietly and Lee sighed. He hadn't meant to make her cry. He just wanted her to rest and let her chakra get back to normal before some village dick decided to pay her a visit and try his hand at killing her. Because in her current state she wouldn't be able to defend herself well. And she wouldn't be able to regenerate like she normally did either.

So it would be very easy for her to be wounded. And even easier for her to die.

The thought of her being hurt and abused like she had been in their previous time line all over again, pissed him off greatly. He rolled over and pulled her up against his body and smoothed her blond hair back away from her face as she sobbed. "I don't like feeling weak."

No, he would imagine that for someone as strong as Uzu, feeling weak even for a little while, would be very scary. Terrifying even. Because it left her open to all kinds of troubling and potentially harmful situations.

He brushed his finger tips over her cheeks, wiping away some of her tears as she shuddered and curled up on her side. Drawing her little knees to her chest as he rose up on his elbow and made soft shushing sounds and hummed a little bit in his rough, rarely used, broken voice and tried to calm her. She would only exhaust herself more if she kept crying, and that was bad for her health since she had been running a fever just a few days ago.

She snifled a few times and rubbed at her eyes, her body trembling as she slowly quieted down. Lee hugged her a little tighter and she growled at him.

"I hope you're first born is a girl exactly like Sakura." His lips curled up a little bit and he shrugged. There were worse curses, he supposed. Uzu finally settled down and she started to doze off, Lee had changed tactics a little while ago and had started to rub her little back in a soothing manner causing her to start to fall asleep.

He carefully monitered her breathing, her pulse, and knew the exact moment she finally went to sleep. Because it was the exact moment he felt a familiar presence skulking around outside.

_Kakashi? _No. Kakashi's presence felt much warmer than this one.

This presence felt more like an enemy.

_Checking the outside to see when it's best to strike. _

Lee got up and wrapped the blanket around Uzu-hime's small and currently fragile body and picked her up and made a nice safe place in the corner of the room for her and put her down against the wall and quickly moved the dresser over to where she was and tipped it over side ways and turned to face the person as the bedroom window opened and a dark figure of a tall man wearing a strange swirling mask stared back at him with a sharigan eye. Madara. He had come for Uzu-hime much earlier than expected.

Lee gave the man a feral smile and pulled a kunai out of his weapons pouch and took up a defensive position in front of the corner as his dark eyes flashed an demonic glowing red.

_Come get some._

And die screaming...

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Ha!

This chapter was much longer than I thought it would be.

I hope that it was worth waiting for.

I'll be updating again as soon as I can.


	13. the protectors

_Madara. He had come for Uzu-hime much earlier than expected._

_Lee gave the man a feral smile and pulled a kunai out of his weapons pouch and took up a defensive position in front of the corner as his dark eyes flashed an demonic glowing red._

_Come get some._

_And die screaming..._

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At five fifty seven p.m on September the sixth an explosion coming from the nine tail biiju's apartment rocked the quiet little village as two figures burst out of the ruins. One wearing a black and red cloak, and a strange swirling face mask and another wearing an emerald green outfit with a kunai in one hand and a small body firmly tucked under the arm of his free arm. Red chakra swirling around him as he landed on the rooftop across form the smoldering apartment ruins.

Madara stared at the young man in shock. His mind not quite comprehending what had just happened. No, he had much more disturbing things going through his head. Like questions about the familiar red chakra swirling around the young man. It looked like the demonic chakra of the nine tailed fox, the cold feeling a dread settled in his stomach as he started to understand.

The Biiju had shared her power with this young man. Turning him from an ordinary human to a half demon. A sentinal. _A watchdog._

Someone who could pass himself as human for the sole purpose of killing anyone that tried to hurt her. How clever. No doubt she had also shared other things with the young man as well, meaning that the Uchiha would have to watch his step around this Biiju. His mind already labeling her as too dangerous to let escape. If he failed to capture her, then she would only create more watch dogs, share her power with them and change them into half demons too.

If he let that happen...he would never be able to seal away the nine tails and use it's chakra to take over the world! Okay. He was done playing with the kid. One way or another the blond was leaving with him.

"Alright boy...hand over the little one and maybe, I'll let you live." Madara growled in annoyance. His time was running out. He could both see and hear people coming to investigate the explosion.

Lee looked down at Uzu and smiled faintly then turned his glittering scarlet eyes back to his enemy.

Madara wouldn't touch Uzu-hime. Even if he died, the Hokage and every nin in the village would be out for his blood. He just had to hold the mad man back a little bit longer...

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Kakashi had been almost to the apartment when the explosion had occurred. He had been so close that the sudden shift in the air pressure and the loud **_boom_** followed by flaming metal and wood and glass flying in all directions, had knocked him off of his feet and sent him flying a good ways back before he had flipped himself and dug in his heels and used his chakra to keep from being flung across the village as he lifted his arms to protect his uncovered eye as large swirling red vine like things appeared, whipping in the air and he felt the bottom drop out of his stomach as fear coiled it's long cold fingers around his heart.

Oh god.

It was the Kyubbi's chakra.

Had the seal been broken somehow? "Uzu..."

Dear god, that explosion_ had _been huge. Was she still alive? Or had she been killed by the thing that she had been used to suppress? _I have to know. _He ruthlessly squashed the fearful feeling threatening to overwhelm him and stood up. Ignoring the little pieces of glass and wood that were still whipping in the wind, cutting at his body, slicing open his skin and took off running. If Uzu had survived that explosion them it was imperative that she be found and taken to safety and healed before the seal completely shattered.

(****************************************************************************************************************************************************************)

Lee didn't give an inch.

He simply couldn't afford too. Every time Madara got around behind him he would speed up his body movements and get behind Madara. Help was moving in closer, he was aware of the third Hokage's presence along with Kakashi's. He could feel Kona, Shika, Hinata, and others heading towards them and was surprised when Gaara's sand shield came between him and Madara as the Uchiha moved in to strike a fatal blow.

The sand protected him, and at the same time pulled him back and took Uzu from his grasp, wrapping the girl in a small cocoon of sand that was as impenetrable as steel. Gaara broke the trasformation jutsu, changing himself from child to adult and stood next to Lee, his eyes glowing a bright and frightening red, his lips peeled back from his teeth in a silent snarl.

"How dare you..." He growled, his voice sounded deeper and much more chilling. Lee's eyes flickered to the red headed man as Gaara used hsi sand to drive Madara back away from the cocoon ofsand holding Uzu back at a safe distance.

He had tweaked his sand jutsu specifically for something like this. He had placed a seal, designed by Uzu herself to thwart Madara's ability to shift through space and time. By activating it, he could protect Uzu-hime and Lee and himself from the man's efforts to reach them until help arrived.

He grabbed Lee and pulled him closer to his side and let his sand form a sheild around them as well. He had had enough of this man and his constant attacks on the people closest to him. Madara had already killed a majority of his friends.

His siblings.

His jounin instructor and everyone else dear to him. He'd be damned before he let the mad man take Uzu, and Lee too.

Madara blasted the sand in front of him with chakra in an effort to rip it open and kill the two pests. It had taken him a second to realise just who the red head was. Or what he was rather. But he was puzzled about why the Shikaku container would be in the leaf village.

Sure, he knew that Biiju were drawn to one another like magnets. He also knew that some were soldiers meant to serve the other, more powerful Biiju's. But this-

This was _odd_.

He was about to try a more powerful jutsu when the Third Hokage and several dozen Anbu and jounin appeared, firmly placing themselves between him and his goal. Madara growled in annoyance and was about to leave when he felt the air stir behind him and turned his head just enough to let his Sharigan meet the angry glare of another.

_"Chidori..." _Someone seemed to say in a deep rumbling voice from far, far away an instant before he felt something begin to tear through his chest.


	14. Kona's mistrust

_"Chidori..."_

_"Oh, I don't think so Hatake." Madara hissed as he jumped back away from Kakashi as blood soaked through his ripped and torn robe and shirt. No, this wasn't the end. He'd be back for the little bitch later. He vanished. Leaving the Leaf nins to wonder about who he was and why he had been there to begin with. _

_"Hokage-sama!" Someone called out as several dark figures dropped down behind the sphere. Sarutobi narrowed his eyes at the group and spotted his grandson, still in his adult form on the roof top at least twenty feet away looking as if he had run a marathon._

_Kona hit the ground in front of the sand sphere. He turned his head to look at several of the others, Shika, Hinata, Neji, Sauske, Sakura, Ino, Choji and Shino appeared behind him. "Kona! What happened?" Neji asked as the back of the sand sphere started to fall open and Gaara and Lee both still in their adult forms appeared. Lee held Uzu cradled in his arms and looked worried. She had'nt woken up, stirred or made so much as a peep since the attack started. _

_"Sakura. Check Uzu-hime." Lee signed then handed the blond to Kona who immediately checked for a pulse as the third Hokage and several other nins snuck up on the group. Kona dropped to the ground still holding the blond in his arms as Sakura moved forward and made some hand signs and laid her glowing green hands against the girl's skin to check for injuries and such. _

_"Her pulse is steady. Her chakra is still really low. Kona, you said that she was awake earlier. Did she move around much?" _

_"No. No not really. Why? Is that a bad thing?" Kona asked in a panicked tone. Sakura shook her head._

_Kona looked at Sakura as Lee and Gaara used what was left of the sand shield to hide themselves as they changed themselves back to kids and stumbled out of the sand sphere and dropped down next to Kona and scanned the area around them anxiously. _

_Sarutobi studied the kids with a dark expression on his face. He was still in the dark about a lot of stuff. Or at least that was the impression that he got. Like the fact that an untrained little girl who wasn't even a genin, could know advanced medical jutsu without making an effort to learn it. Or the fact that the sand Biiju had temporarily made his home in their village. Or the fact that his grandson who should still be three, looked seventeen. Acted seventeen and had come directly here, in the middle of a battle and seemed rather attached to Uzumaki. _

_It was bothersome. And a puzzle. But it was a puzzle that he intended to figure out. _

_But ata the same time he knew that asking the kids was pointless. So he'd just have to watch them and see what happened next. And while he was at it, he'd investigate that cloaked figure that the kids had fought off, and the source of the demonic chakra that had lit up the skies just a little while ago. _

_"She's fine Lee, Gaara. She hasn't woken up because her body is still very weak and needs the sleep to help her recover. She'll wake up in a few hours feeling a bit better. You shouldn't let her move around or do too much on her own, she might collapse if you do." Sakura said gently as she reached out and took the girl from Kona and did a more through examination as Shika stepped forward. _

_"That's all well and good but Uzu is going to need a place to recover in since her home has been reduced to that-" He said as he pointed behind them. Lee and Gaara and everyone else turned and looked at the smoldering remains of Uzu's apartment and Lee turned red and cringed._

_Oh shit. _

_He had done that, hadn't he? He didn't really recall doing it, but he was fairly certain that he had. He lifted his hands and quickly signed. "She can stay with me. Shika, Neji, Sauske, and Kona can help out by swinging by and helping me keep an eye on her. Sakura...you'll have to stay close to us too, just in case she needs you for some reason." _

_"It's nice of you to offer Lee, but do you really think that you have the room?" Shika asked curiously. Lee didn't even hesitate. He nodded and Sakura sighed. _

_"Alright. So we have a plan." _

_"Fantastic. Lets get the fuck out of here before the old timer and the others figure out that we're-" Kona started to say as he stood up and scooped Uzu up in his arms and turned to leave when Sauske reached out and grabbed his arm and pinched him once, twice, harder on the third time. _

_Trying to get Kona to realise that the adults were right fucking there, and they had heard every damn word. _

_Kona got a funny 'oh shit' look on his face as his grandfather crossed his arms and smiled at them coldly. Sauske groaned and Shika rolled his eyes and sighed. Gaara pinched the bridge of his nose. Neji snorted and grabbed Hinata and pushed her behind him, not really knowing what to expect from the older man but wanting to protect his baby cousin just the same. Sakura and Ino both exchanged a look with Lee. _

_The third Hokage studied the kids for a second, silently debating on what to do now. But he could only think of one thing. A simple question. _

_"What was that person after?" He spoke in a dangerously quiet tone, a tone that brooked no arguments. He'd beat the answers out of his grandson if he had too after this fucking fiasco. Kona looked around nervously and debated on handing Uzu off to someone else and running like hell. _

_He did not want to mess with his grandfather right now. Especially since he was young enough not to be hindered by arthritis and could easily run him down if he wanted too. Fortunately for him, it was Sauske that spoke up. "He's called Madara Uchiha, lord Hokage. And he's after Uzumaki."_

_Sarutobi turned his head just a little bit and stared at the young Uchiha as he sucked in a breath. "Uchiha Madara?" Young Sauske knew this for sure? He sounded like he knew for sure, but Sarutobi was unsure of how much faith he could put in the child's words. Yet that nagging feeling in the back of his mind... The one chanting, 'I know what you don't' got the best of him. _

_Sauske had no reason to lie. None of them did. _

_He smiled kindly at the raven and looked back at the blond child in Kona's arms, his expression dark and troubled. If that masked man was in fact Madara, and he was after Uzumaki..._

_Then his true target was the nine tailed demon sealed with in the child. He'd have to assign someone to stay with the girl as a body guard. "Kakashi." _

_The silver haired jounin moved forward. Gently shouldering his way through the Anbu so that he could get to where the Hokage stood. He stopped just shy of the man's side and waited for his Kage to speak again. "Kakashi. After this incident I fear that Uzu may need a body guard that can defend her adequately. I'll be assigning you as her temporarily guardian. She's going to be living with you until I feel that she is safe. From now on...she will be your responsibility."_

_Kakashi bowed his head. "Hai." Kakashi said gently. _

_Kona looked back and forth between Kakashi and his grandfather and slapped Kakashi's hands away when he reached out to take Uzu. This was bad. This was really bad. If Kakashi took Uzu now...Madara would have her with in a year. _

_Luckily he wasn't the only person who had come to this conclusion. Kakashi took a threatening step forward and snarled at the boy. "Hand her over-" _

_Kona didn't back down. If anything he stepped up to the man and pushed him back a few steps. Sarutobi watched the act of aggression in fascination. Wondering what could drive his young grandson to push someone almost as dangerous as himself and wondered how Kakashi would handle the boy. Kakashi stared at the boy in shock as fury rose swiftly in his chest. _

_How dare he. How dare he seek to keep the copy nin from Uzu. The copy nin had killed lesser men for the same shit. He stepped up to the boy again, keeping in mind that Uzu was unconscious, possibly wounded somewhere and growled at Konahamaru warningly. The brat did not want to fight him on this. _

_He'd rip him apart if he tried. _

_"Give. Her. Here." Kakahsi said from between tightly clenched teeth. Kona put his hand on the man's chest again and roughly pushed him back again. He wasn't handing over Uzu! _

_Kakashi would get her killed! His grandfather would get her killed! He couldn't trust anyone that wasn't one of their group! "Go fuck your self Copy cat. I'm not handing Uzu-hime over to anyone that I don't trust." Kona snapped at the silver haired man. Kakashi stared at him for a second, an unfathomable expression on his masked face. _

_"Alright, kid. Have it you're way." Kakashi said in a dangerously low tone as he gave the boy a chilling smile. _

_He asked for it, and in the mood he was in right now; Kakashi was all to happy to oblige._

_(******************************************************************************************************************************************************************)_

_This whole chapter was a flash back to set up the next chapter. _

_Hopefully there will be more interactions between Kakashi and Uzu since they should be living together starting in the next chapter._

_I still want to do a lemon between Uzu and Kona. I also want to do another one with Lee and make the girl Uzu, but I'm wary of trying. I can see it in my head, and it all looks good. But...I'll leave it for now and just focus on the bonds between the kids and Kakashi and Uzu_


	15. chapter 15

The third Hokage was livid as he paced back and forth in front of the copy nin, looking like an caged tiger. Sarutobi couldn't believe Kakashi had almost _killed _his grandson. Just to take Uzumaki away from the boy. But he had.

Kakashi had lost his temper and had come very dangerously close to killing Konahamaru. _Just because he wanted to protect Uzu._ No, it went deeper than that, Sarutobi knew it but there was very little that he could do about it. Kona's words _had_ more or less said it all.

He didn't trust _anyone_ with Uzu's life. Not anyone outside of the kids anyways.

And_ that_ had been the straw that had caused Kakashi to almost break his neck. Kakashi had been watching the girl since she was a baby, yet even he seemed a little put out and confused by the sudden changes in the kids around Uzu. Yet that had'nt stopped him from beating Kona almost to death with his bare hands. "Un-fucking-believable..." The third Hokage growled as he stopped and glanced at the silver haired man. "You are un-fucking-believable. Do you know that, Hatake?" The elder said as he continued to pace around.

"You not only got into a fight with a three year old trapped in an adult's body-" Kakashi raised his free hand to say something but the elder threw a kunai at it and he was forced to pull his hand back down or watch it get taken off by the deadly accurate aim. "Keep your fucking hand down unless you want it ripped off! I have much to say to you and a very little window of opportunity to say it in."

Kakashi blinked at him then scooted down further in his seat, he looked down at the little blond child snuggled against his body and smiled faintly. It had been over an hour since the elder's grandson had been rushed to the hospital after the beating he had recieved and while Kakashi doubted that the boy would actually die from his wounds, the Hokage was still pretty upset about the whole incident.

Not that he could blame him, he'd be pissed too if someone had beat the shit out of his three year old grandson; if the roles were reversed. Still he wouldn't have felt the need to hurt the boy if he had just handed over Uzu in the first place.

In the copy nin's defense, he had warned the boy. Repeatedly. So _everything_ that had happened hadn't been his fault. "But you beat the hell out of said child, put him in the hospital and-"

Kakashi looked at the elder as he paused speaking and raised a silver brow at the elder as if to say, _"And what?"_

Sarutobi glared at the man and bared his teeth and snapped. "I'm of half a mind to send you to Ibiki to be punished." Kakashi cringed and the elder smirked. Finally, a reaction from the man. But his amusment was short lived.

He couldn't do that to Kakashi because he had a mission to do. He had to take Uzumaki home with him and keep her safe and he would'nt be able to keep Uzu safe if he sent him to Ibiki to be punished for his actions tonight.

He sighed and sat down in his seat, his anger draining away a little bit. "Kona had better survive his wounds."

"He will. I purposely missed his vital points." Kakashi said gently. Uzu moaned softly and shifted, curling up on her side in Kakashi's lap. The copy nin stiffened a little bit and reached down and lightly ran his blunt finger nails across her scalp. Sarutobi sat there watching the man as the child settled down and sighed in her sleep.

He'd chosen well when he had given this mission to Kakashi.

The copy nin would provide and protect for the child while she was in a vulnerable state (due to her low chakra levels) and would be able to scare off anyone that wanted to hurt her because of the demon. After all anyone who knew Kakashi's reputation would never dare to try and get at the girl while he was around to take care of her. "Well, that is something I suppose. Go home Kakashi, and settle Uzu in and get some sleep. You look like hell..."

Kakashi stood up cradling his little burden's dead weight in his arms and was half way across the room when the Hokage finally said. "I'm taking you off active duty for the next two months as punishment."

Kakashi turned his head slightly to look at the elder and shrugged his shoulders. Not a problem.

How hard could it be to baby sit a little kid anyways?


	16. trouble

Okay!

By slightly popular demand I will be writing a lemon or two between Lee/Uzu and maybe a three some between Sakura/Lee/Uzu or Uzu/Lee/Gaara.

Well whatever, I'm curious to see how the dynamics would work since Lee's nuts in this.

Any who-back to the story.

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For the hundredth time in the past three days-

Kakashi felt as if he were under attack by munchkins.

He was quite literally tearing his place apart right now looking for the five or six kids that had some how (though for the life of him he couldn't figure out how) broken into his home and were currently hiding everywhere.

He growled in annoyance and took back what he had thought the other day when he had brought Uzu home. Babysitting Uzu wasn't so bad. Really it wasn't. She was a sweet kid when she wasn't feeling well. It was the rest of the kids that kept pissing him off.

Since when had his home become the kids favorite play ground? He had been assigned to watch over Uzu, the Hokage had said nothing about the rest of them. _I should get hazard pay for this shit._The copy nin growled as he dropped down to his hands and knees and reached under his couch and grasped a small ankle in his hand and pulled a small body out from under his couch and stared down at the irritated child. "Sauske Uchiha..." He said softly.

Hadn't he already thrown this _kid_ out of his place five times this morning? _How the hell was he getting back in? _He wondered as the boy glared at him. Kakashi gave the kid a creepy smile and pulled a short length of rope out of his weapons pouch and quickly tied the boy up and set him on the couch. "Don't. Move. From. That. Spot." Kakashi bit out form between clenched teeth as he stood up and looked around.

That was one down. Only four or five to go.

He went about, systematically checking his living room, his closets, his kitchen cabinets, the bedroom, pausing by Uzu's room for a second to check on her since she had been sleeping a lot in an effort to regain her strength. He slipped into her room and quietly pulled the covers up over her shoulder and brushed her soft blond hair back from her face. She stirred a little bit and cracked open her eyes and looked at him.

"Kakashi?"

"Shhh, don't mind me. I'm just checking on you. Feel free to go back to sleep."

She nodded and closed her eyes and he silently slipped from her room and closed the door behind him to muffle the noise he made when he was hunting for the other kids.

Uzu lay there with her eyes closed for several more seconds, just to be sure that he was gone before opening her eyes and sitting up in bed. Outside of her bedroom window, Lee peeked in and scratched at the glass quietly as she swung her feet over the side of the bed and stood up, she hissed and grabbed her head as everything spun a little bit and waited for the spinning to stop before she looked up and noticed that Lee was watching her through narrowed eyes.

"I'm fine Lee." She said softly as she walked across the floor and quietly opened the window for him. Lee slipped inside of her room with the kind of practiced ease that he had gained from his experience as an Anbu assassin. He settled himself on the floor in front of her feet and looked around for a second.

Kakashi had gone to a lot of trouble to get her from Kona, and while he had been amused by the ass kicking that Kona had gotten, he knew that nothing short of death would really teach the boy anything. He had known that Kona was worried about her. Hell they all were. Why else would they go to such lengths just to distract the man so that he could slip in and help her get ready to go?

_"Get dressed and grab what you may need. You're going to be staying with me."_ Lee signed as he stood up and handed her a small bag to use to gather some of her things. She took the bag and looked at him curiously.

"For how long?"

Lee looked at her and cocked his head and thought. _"A week. Maybe two."_It was just until her chakra was back to normal, then he would bring her back. No muss. No fuss.

"What about Kakashi? You know that he won't just let me go."

_"Yeah. We'll have that covered. Think you have the strength to make a shadow clone?" _Lee signed to her as he grabbed some of her things from the dresser and put them in the bag. Uzu nodded and made a shadow clone and sat down feeling drained as Lee reached out and infused some of his chakra into the shadow clone so that he could maintain it when she wasn't able too and finished packing her things and then made his way back over to her and picked her up.

She wrapped her arms around his neck and rested her head on his shoulder as he made his way back out the window with her and motioned for the shadow clone to close the window after them and lay back down.

(****************************************************************************************************************************************************************)

Sauske sat on the couch looking pissed, next to Neji, Shika, Kiba, Choji and Hinata as Kakashi decided to make one last sweep of the house to check and make sure that he had caught all of his little intruders and waited until the copy nin was out of the room before he whispered. "I think we've worn out our welcome."

Hina snorted. "You think?"

"I think it's about time we ditch the copy nin and go to Lee's." Shika said as he worked the ropes around his body.

"I think you may be right." Sauske said as he dislocated his left shoulder and stood up, letting the ropes slip down his body. Once he was free he untied the others and the group all made their way to the door and slipped out.

Kakashi stood in the hall way watching the kids curiously. Just what were they up too? And how the hell did they keep getting by his traps? He sighed and grabbed his head band, his mask, his keys and quickly summoned one of his ninken and kindly asked it to watch over Uzu until he returned and walked out the door, locking it behind him so that he could follow the kids and see what they were up too.

Of course this meant that he would have to spy on them, but whatever. He'd do anything he deemed totally nessisary to keep Uzu safe and those little brats out of his home.

(******************************************************************************************************************************************************************)

Lee switched back over to his adult form and took to the roof tops since it was the fastest way to travel while carrying Uzu-hime. He didn't think that she was doing too well. In fact, he would stake his life on that fact. She had just seemed to become so much paler and weaker after making the shadow clone. Not that he could blame her but it was still worrying.

He stopped for a second and put his hand against her forehead and growled softly when he noticed how hot her skin felt. She was running a fever again. Dammit, he needed to get her to Sakura before she started having trouble breathing. He shifted his hold on her and started running again, picking up speed as he went. It took only a few minutes more but he finally reached his home on the far side of the village, several blocks from where Uzu's apartment had stood.

He jumped the black iron gate attached to the fifteen foot brick wall and ran up to the house and threw open the door. _"Sakura!"_

Sakura had been in the middle of running a bath for Lee when she heard him yell in his broken rough voice and jumped to her feet and quickly stuck her head out of the bathroom to see what had caused him to yell when he so rarely used his voice anymore. He came walking down the hall to the bathroom holding Uzu with a dark expression on his face.

Uh-oh, something was about to set off one of his little _episodes_.

The last time he had suffered one of his episodes, Uzu had been seriously wounded while out on the front line and had been carried back barely alive. Lee had flipped out in a big way and slipped out of their camp while she and everyone else had slept and had stayed gone for almost a week before he came back naked, and covered from head to toe in mud, blood, and other things carrying a short sword and several severed heads.

Sakura had been both horrified and amused by just who the severed heads had belonged too, he had literally hunted down the ones that had wounded Uzu and had killed them for laying their hands on the woman, and had forgiven Lee for scaring ten years off of her life. He had let Sakura take him down to the creek and wash the blood and shit off of him before he had gone to see Uzu and had spent the rest of the next two weeks after that incident sitting in the hospital tent with Uzu while Kakashi was away.

Lee carried Uzu inot his room and laid her on the bed and started stripping her damp night gown off of her without thinking. Sakura watched him with a bemused expression on her face and decided to help out. "Anything that I can do?" She asked teasingly and lee stiffened a bit and turned his head to look at her.

_"She has a fever again. Do we have anything that can stabilize her?" _Lee asked as he pulled out a nice clean shirt and started to put it on the blond.

"I think we might have some stuff. Move over and I'll check her again." Sauske said with a frown as she gently as she pushed him to the side a little bit. Lee shifted but didn't really move, he just let Sakura in because she needed to check Uzu again. He was beginning to suspect that there was something much more wrong with the woman than simple chakra depletion.

Maybe something was wrong with Kyubbi or maybe it was something else, he didn't know. All he knew was that she had been feeling a little bit better earlier and had gotten ill again after making the shadow clone. Sakura laid her hands on the girl and frowned.

Uzu's chakra levels seemed much weaker, and the faint traces of Kyubbi's chakra was practically non existent. "Fuck me..." Sakura breathed as she realised what was making Uzu so sick. Kyubbi was dying, and was trying to merge itself with it's container in an effort to maintain Uzu's life, but it had so little chakra left that it's efforts were making the girl weaker.

Lee looked at his lover, his eyes narrowed. _"What is it?"_He rasped in a dangerously soft tone as he looked at Sakura's face.

Sakura blinked several times and looked up at her lover and looked like she was going to cry. "K-Kyubbi is dying. It's trying to merge with her so that she won't die with it but it's chakra's are making her sick and it's too weak to fix the damage." She said softly as she tried to calm herself down and think of a way to help the demon merge with Uzu so that she wouldn't die too.

She ran several different senario's, and did the calculations and finally looked at Lee and asked. "How long until the others get here?"

Lee looked at her and felt as if his heart were breaking. He looked utterly devastated. _"A few more minutes." Why did it matter? Was Uzu going to die today?_He wanted to ask but couldn't bring himself to say the words.

"Good. Here is what we're going to do once they get here-"

Lee blinked and slowly sat down on the floor next to the bed and grabbed Sakura's hand. _"Do you have a plan?"_

Sakura gave him a smile and he sighed and ran his fingers through his long dark hair. _"Where do we start?"_Lee asked as he looked up at Sakura after taking several seconds to calm himself. Sakura looked at him for a second and took a deep breath.

"We'll have to give her several chakra infusions and design a seal to help Kyubbi merge with her more effortlessly. The less effort the demon makes in merging, the less strain on her body and the greater her chances of surviving."

_"Can we really do it Sakura?" _Lee asked anxiously.

"We don't have a choice Lee. It's either do it, or watch her die." Sakura said as she poured some of her chakra into her friend to stabilize her condition just a little bit so that there wouldn't be so much stress on her body. Lee watched her work for several seconds and then stood up and walked across the room and opened one of his dresser drawers and pulled out a heaven seal scroll and opened it and scanned the different seals on it before pausing on one and smiling.

This seal was all about stability, physically and mentally. It could merge the Kyubbi's chakra with Uzu's own without any bad repercussions to Uzu, health wise. It could help hidden abilities come to the surface and awaken hidden genki genkai.

This would do.

This would do nicely.


	17. the plan

Lee sat down on the floor and started tweaking the heaven seal in his hand, fixing it so that it could be used without putting a strain on Uzu-hime while Sakura gave her a small chakra infusion and went to get something for her fever. Lee put down his paint brush and studied the new and improved heaven seal and then moved to sit on the edge of the bed, and took his friend's hand in his. He kissed her knuckles and brushed her long hair back from her face as Sakura came back down the hall with some herbal tea.

"The others will be here in any minute, Lee. I need you to go tell them what we're going to do." Lee nodded and stood up to go when it occurred to him that they didn't know how long it would take for Kyubbi to merge with Uzu-hime.

He turned back around and tapped her on the shoulder until she looked at him and signed. _"If this works. How soon will we know?" _

"We'll know within minutes, but the minutes could easily drag on into days." Sakura said gently. Lee stared at her for several seconds then shrugged his shoulders. Well, he'd suppose that she would know since Sakura was a medical nin. He walked out of the room and Sakura sat there on the bed trying to get Uzu to drink the tea, but she couldn't manage to get her friend to swallow much of it. She sighed and set the cup aside.

She'd have to let Lee help her take some of the herbal tea before they started. The more stable Uzu's condition, the better off she would be.

(******************************************************************************************************************************************************************************)

Sauske, Neji, Choji, Shika, and Hinata all ran across the roof tops towards Lee's place. They were anxious to see Uzu again since they had'nt seen her since the other day, and she had appeared to be in really bad health.

"Do you think Uzu-hime will be feeling better by now?" Choji asked as he fell into step between Sauske and Shika.

"Dunno. She's always been a quick healer, but if Kyubbi is exhausted or sick or something then it only stands to reason that she might still be feeling really weak." Shika said as the roof of Lee's place came into view.

He was just a little surprised to see Lee outside of the front door, leaning against the house looking grim. "Well hell." Neji said with a sigh. If the look on Lee's face was any indication at all, then Uzu-hime was still feeling sick.

"Alright everyone, lets go see what Lee wants and then we'll check in on Uzu."

(*******************************************************************************************************************************************************************************)

Kakashi tracked the kids from a safe distance behind them. They were heading somewhere in a hurry. Meaning that they were meeting up with someone for some reason. He watched them jump down off of the last roof and quickly followed, slowing his pace to a nice lazy walk as he rounded the corner of the last house and stopped when he saw the wall surrounding a small cozy cabin like house.

Now why would the kids be coming here? He wondered curiously as he watched them all gather around a twenty some thing year old young man with long silky black hair that hung nearly to his waist. The guy smiled at the kids then started to use sign language.

Kakashi narrowed his eyes and started reading the young man's hands.

_"I'm glad that you're all here. Sakura will need your help. Kyubbi is dying, and Uzu-hime will die too if we don't help her."_ Kakashi felt the bottom go out of his stomach as realisation sank in to his shocked and numb mind.

Uzu was dying. Because the Kyubbi was dying. _No. No. _His mind screamed in denial. She couldn't die! She was just a little kid, she couldn't die! She was all that he had left! All that mattered to him in all the world. _Well, I've just found out why they've been breaking into my home._

He thought as he quickly squashed the nearly overwhelming feeling of dread and continued reading the young man's hands. _"Sakura has come up with a plan to help Kyubbi merge with Uzu-hime and save her life. She said that because the Kyubbi was dying, it was trying to merge with Uzu to keep her form dying too, but because it's chakra is so weak, it hasn't been able to merge and has been making Uzu-hime sick and is too weak to fix the damage. I have found and tweaked a heaven seal to place on her body and help her condition stabilize." _

Kakashi blinked. He didn't really understand why they knew all of these things, or even how they knew that they could help Uzu, but he was more than a little surprised by the fact that they had a plan at all. Especially since it sounded like it just might work if they gave her some of their chakra.

_"We'll have to give her several chakra infusions to help strengthen Kyubbi so that it can merge with her without causing such a strain on Uzu's body and mind." _

The kids all nodded their heads. "Okay, Lee. Just tell us what you need us to do and we'll do it." Shika said. Lee nodded his head and opened the door and motioned for them to all come inside then paused and signed for someone to go get 'Gaara, Shino, and Ino' because he felt that they might be able to help too. Choji nodded his head and took off running back the way they had all come. Kakashi stepped back into the shadows of the nearest building and watched the boy run by him and was tempted to follow, but decided against it since the shit seemed to be going down here.

Where ever here was.


	18. raising suspicion

Sauske looked down at Uzu-hime and felt his eyes start to burn and blinked rapidly in an effort to keep from crying as he stared down at the blond. Dear god. He could just barely recognise her as his former hated rival, turned savior. She looked so pale, so weak, so, so, so fucking _fragile_. How could this have happened? Did it have something to do with them all traveling back into the past? Sakura stood up and handed Lee the herbal tea that she had made to bring down Uzu's fever. "I can't get her to swallow any. Would you help her drink it?" Sakura asked softly.

Lee took the cup and glanced at Uzu-hime and nodded and lifted the cup to his lips and took some of the liquid into his mouth and gently pushed Sauske and several of the others out of the way and sat down on the edge of the bed and leaned over the blond that meant the world to him and everyone else, and carefully parted her lips and pressed his mouth to hers and let the tea slip from his mouth and into hers.

Uzu twitched and moaned in distress and started to jerk her head to the side, but Lee refused to let her break the small connection, his hands framing her small face as she started to stir and try to push him away. He waited until he was sure that she had swallowed as much as she could before he bothered to lift his head and wiped some of the liquid that had escaped from her mouth before she had swallowed from the corners of her mouth and chin with his finger tips.

Uzu wheezed, in an effort to draw breath into her lungs as her body spasmed under him and he looked at Sakura in distress. Sakura moved in closer and took hold of Uzu's wrist and took her pulse. Her former team mates pulse was far too weak, her body temperature was far too high...

Her body was shutting down. Sakura looked at Sauske. "Sauske, I'll need you to help me give her a chakra infusion to stabilize her." The raven glanced at his former team mate and nodded his head.

"Yeah, okay. Whatever you need Sakura." _Whatever will save Uzu. _He thought as he reached out and placed his hands over Uzu's body and focused as much chakra as he could into the palms of his hands and frowned when he felt an unfamiliar chakra flare inside of him. _What the hell? _Why did he suddenly have far more chakra than he recalled having?

Sakura placed her hands on top of his and heard Lee's low feral sounding growl before she felt his arms snake around her body and his face pressed against her nape. "Lee-"

"I know." _I just don't care._Lee thought darkly as he glared at Sauske, his memories of Sakura's affection for the raven, still fresh and vivid in his mind. Sakura studied Uzu as she helped Sauske 'push' their chakra inside of her. Uzu's body spasmed violently and she made a funny little sound and gritted her teeth and hissed as if in pain, which Sakura was sure that she was in. There wasn't any way around it though, and Sakura refused to let the sudden feeling of guilt that welled up in her chest eat away at her and endanger Uzu's life. Not when she was working so damn hard to save it.

It took a grand total of twenty minutes of pouring their combined chakra's into the girl, but finally Sauske staggered back and fell on his ass on the floor as Sakura used some of her medical jutsu to reverse the damage to Uzu's organs and fixed the damage that Kyubbi's chakra had made. "Okay, Shika, Hina, Shino, you're all up."

(************************************************************************************************************************************************************************)

Kakashi was getting anxious. Well okay, he was more than anxious.

But that was to be expected when Uzu was in trouble. Still, it had been over two hours since the kids had gone inside of the house, after being told that Uzu was dying, because of the Kyubbi. And Kakashi was fighting against himself, and his nature.

On one hand, he wanted to go and report what he had over heard and seen to the Hokage since the elder was a mite concerned about the kids. That and there were a certain amount of things that just didn't add up in his mind. He wasn't sure what it was exactly, but something was off with the kids. Something was off with Uzu. He knew it, but hadn't really realised it until just a little while ago...

And what he meant by 'off' was that Uzu hadn't known him three days ago. In fact he had gone to excruciatingly hard lengths to make himself a stranger to her, yet earlier, when he had gone in to check on her-

She had called him by his name. Not his Anbu name, which was the only name that she should have known him as since it was as well known to her as it was to the village Kage and his council. But his actual goddamn name. Kakashi.

He had let it slide until he had realised what she had called him. Then he had known that something was off with her and had gone to spy on the other kids in an effort to figure out how Uzu could have known his name when she had more or less been sleeping for the past three days strait and hadn't even woken up when he had carried her home after beating Konahamaru with in an inch of his life.

She hadn't woken when he had striped her and washed the dust and dirt from her small sweating body, hadn't woken up when he had wrapped her in a fluffy towel and carried her into his guest room and laid her down while he went to his room and grabbed her one of his old shirts to sleep in, and grabbed the first aid kit so that he could examine her for wounds.

She hadn't woken up for anything that he had done, so it was an impossibility that she could have learned his name then, or any of the times that they had met before. The only names that she identified him with were 'woofie' and 'silver' and 'shadow', all of which she had known him as since she was a toddler under his care. And she wouldn't have learned his name then, because he had been very careful to hide his face, to change the sound of his voice, hell, he had even used methods that he had learned as an Anbu to change his scent every time that he had been close to her, thinking that it might be in his best interest to do so since she'd had a very sharp nose even as a baby.

He had taken every step. Every percaution to keep her from learning his name and anything else.

So how then had she been able to call him by his name?

Just what the hell was going on here?

And what part did Uzu and the kids play?


	19. Kyubbi's parting gift

Sakura sat back on her heels and wiped at the sweat on her face and sighed as she looked around at the others. Some of whom had sank down to the floor and propped themselves up against the wall and were sleeping, all of whom were exhausted from giving chakra to Uzu-hime and already they could see the difference in the blonde's breathing pattern and the color of her cheeks as glowing red chakra formed a protective shield around her as the merging between her being and the Kyubbi's being began in earnest.

Lee flopped down on the bed beside her, the action jostling Uzu and earning an animalistic growl from the girl before everything got quiet again. _"How long until she wakes up?" _Lee asked curiously as he stuck his hand out and poked at the red chakra, and got his finger burned for his efforts. He jerked his hand back and glared at the swirling mass as he stuck his finger in his mouth and sucked on the burned part.

Sakura rolled her eyes at him before answering. "A few hours. After the merging is done we'll have to make sure that her body still functions properly." Lee gave her a questioning look.

"I think you'll be the one to test her Lee. If any of the others did, she might resent them for it." Sakura said gently. Lee nodded his head as he thought, _Why me?_ What the hell made him so special? He didn't get it.

"Try not to be too rough with her when you test her." Sakura said after a second or so, Lee looked at her as if she were nuts. He wouldn't get rough with Uzu...ever. As strong as she was, she was also very fragile. The slightest bit of roughness could wound her _badly_. And that wasn't something that Lee would do for anything. Ever.

Still he was puzzled, and curious and wondered what Sakura was talking about. "And make sure that you clean her up properly before you go on to the second or third round-" Second or third, huh? Just what did she think he was going to do to Uzu? She looked at him and noted the puzzled expression on his face and sighed tiredly. God it was like Lee and Uzu had temporarily traded places or something, he had such a clueless look on his face.

_I better set him strait. _Sakura thought as she pulled a condom out of her pocket and handed it to him, knowing that it was the easiest way to get him to understand. Lee looked down at the little foil wrapped rubber and turned red with mortification. Holy fucking- Sakura wanted him to fuck her! She wanted him to actually honest to god lay with Uzu-hime! More than once...

He reached up and laid his hand against his forehead and fought off the sudden dizziness that he felt as all the blood rushed from his head and headed south. "Now listen up Lee, you don't have to use the rubber there. In fact it might be best if you didn't since we have to make sure that her reproductive system works too."

Was Sakura saying what he thought she was saying? "So make sure to cum inside of her as much as you can-" Oh shit, she was. Didn't she realise that if he did that Uzu-hime might get- "And if she gets pregnant then we'll deal with it."

And when the people of the village found out, they'd have way too much explaining to do. So no. If he did do Uzu he wasn't going to do that. He was too family oriented to let a female carrying his child go to another man, especially when he might go nuts and kill said other guy for no reason. So again, no.

Sakura leaned up against him, her head resting on his shoulder, and he looked down at her and wondered what her real reasons for saying that he could lay with Uzu was. Sure the reasons that she had given sounded okay, but she wasn't telling him something. And he didn't like being kept in the dark.

Sakura was worried. She knew very well what merging with a demon could do to a person. Which was why she was encouraging Lee to lay with Uzu once the merging was done. Uzu's insides would still be changing and a little bit of the proteins found in semen could help her stay human in both appearance and inside too. Uzu's body would need human DNA to remain human itself. Or rather as human as possible since she was merging with the king of all demons.

(************************************************************************************************************************************************************************)

Burning.

Everything was burning around her. The air, the ground...her skin. Why? What was going on? Why was everything burning? What had happened while she slept? Had there been an attack?

**_Kit..._**

She turned her head and looked in the direction the weak sounding voice had come from. Her eyes narrowing slightly. _Kyubbi?_

**_Please come to me kit... I can no longer move._**

She got up and ran in the direction of the great fox demon's voice. Adrenaline surging through her blood, urging her to run faster than she had ever run before until she stood beofre the warped and decaying bars that had once stood so proudly between her and the demon. _Kyubbi? What is it? Whats happening? _

**_We are merging. _**

_Why?_

**_Because I am dying and the only way to save you is to give you my remaining power and change you. _**

_But Kyubbi-_

**_Don't argue kit. It's for the best. I've caused so much pain and suffering that I wanted to try and atone even if it was a little too late. I can't touch the world outside because of the seal, but I refuse to drag you to nothingness with me. You mean too much. You stand for too much to simply disappear. _**

_I don't understand-_

**_I know. And you don't need too understand. I just wanted to talk to you a little while before I disappeared completely. _**

_Does this mean that I'll be a demon-_

**_In a sense yes. You will inherit my power and my throne. You will become the next great demon king. _**

An icy cold sliver of fear made it's way down her spine and she wrapped her arms around herself to keep from shaking. It didn't work very well, she was too scared to focus on anything but the fact that she was going to be a demon. The most hated and feared creature in all the world.

**_Stop worrying kit. It will not be like that for you. It is true that in some sense you will be a demon, but you will still be a human at heart, that is simply something that my power cannot change. You will not lose anything that makes you who you are. You will still be you. You will still be the warm, kind, funny, thoughtful, and worried person that you have always been. You will just be stronger and more able to bend others to your will, should you need too. I know that you will use my power as it was meant to be used. I want you to save your loved ones and live and be happy._**

_Kyubbi..._

**_Now kit, tell me. What do you wish to look like when you come out of this? _**

_You mean I have a choice? _

**_Of course. _**

_Can't I just look like myself?_

**_Yes. But that's no fun. How about I make you so beautiful that the heavens themselves will weep? _**

_As long as I'm still me then I guess that it doesn't matter much. Do what you want Kyubbi. _

**_Alright kit. You asked for it._**


	20. waiting for rebirth

**_I will make you as beautiful as a goddess, and as terrifying as I once was. Humans, and nations and the gods in the heavens will tremble in awe of you. _**

_That sounds a little much. _

**_It isn't. Trust me. You'll thank me when your wolf seeks you out all that much sooner. _**

Uzu laughed. The soft husky sound rang in the demon's ears like the silvery notes of an angels harp. It was so beautiful that Kyubbi smiled as she let what was left of her chakra flair and transfer to the small human that had become like one of it's young.

She would be great. Greater than the world had ever seen. And she would live lifetimes longer than the average human, and she would have her friends her mate and her future children with her thousands of years from now.

This is what Kyubbi thought. And believed with all her heart as she finally slipped away.

Gods she would miss her kit so much...

(***********************************************************************************************************************************************************************)

Sakura was still talking.

Actually she was trying to tell him how sensitive Uzu's skin would be once she woke up and how he could get her to respond to him better. Frankly he didn't understand why she was so keen on talking to him about laying with the princess. He had thought to ask her if she was dissatisfied with him, maybe wanted to separate from him for a while so that they could rekindle their feelings for one another, but he balked at asking her, simply too worried about hearing her response.

Sakura stopped talking for a second and looked at him and he saw it then, the worry that she was trying to hide from him. He reached over and grasped her hand and squeezed it and rasped. _"Does this really need to be done?"_

"Yes. My suggestion has medical relevance, weather you choose to believe me or not." Lee nodded his head, okay, now he got it. Sort of.

"_Alright... I'll do it_." He rasped as he leaned over and kissed her cheek. She gave him a faint smile then perked up a bit.

"Do you want me to help you get ready?" Lee blinked and looked around the room at the others, all of them were out cold, and the thought of fooling around in the same room with them all, got him rather excited. He nodded his head and Sakura cast a quick glance at Uzu, noting that Uzu had grown a pair of cute little fox ears and a bushy tail as she slept. _Hn, that should really get Lee's engines running. _

Especially since he had a thing for lily-cons in cos-play.

He'd have a feild day with Uzu like this.

She turned back to Lee, it wouldn't be much longer now, and got off of the bed and knelt on the floor in front of him and pulled his legs apart so that she could settle her body between them and nuzzled him through his pants. He gripped the edge of the bed tightly in both hands and stared at her as she took his pants zipped between her teeth and pulled it down and reached inside of his pants and pulled his dick out and licked the underside of it from base to tip.

He twitched and gripped the bed harder as she flicked her tongue across the slit at the head of his dick before taking it into her mouth and sucking hard.


	21. medical relivence

Twenty minutes later-

Sakura released Lee's dick with a soft sounding pop as the chakra barrier around Uzu went down. "Hn. Looks like you get to have fun with the princess now." Sakura said as she licked her lips. Lee looked over at Uzu and blinked in surprise and pointed at the blond. Were those little fox ears and a bushy little tail, he was seeing? Sakura giggled at the thunder struck expression on his face as she looked over Uzu.

She looked different.

Sort of like she used too, but with more 'omff'. Her features had a more delicate look to them, giving her an almost other worldly appearance, her hair had faint pinkish red hue lacing the soft ash blond. Her little fox ears and tail had soft silvery white fur laced with the same pinkish tone, her face had regained some of the color that it had previously lost, a faint pink flush colored her cheeks. She looked so cute.

Like mouth wateringly, every perverts wet dream kind of cute. Sakura got up and quickly went about getting everyone out of the room, Lee was quiet as he listened to the others moan and groan and mutter swears at the pinkette as she ushered them all out of the room and waved bye to Lee as Uzu stirred in her sleep and let her eyes flutter open. The once vivid violet color had faded to a vivid shade of ruby red laced with fuchsia around the pupils.

"Lee?"

He smiled at her and reached out and ran his knuckles along the curve of her cheek. She made a soft sound and turned her head against his fingers a small frown marring her features as he leaned over her and kissed the corner of her lips. She made another small sound and turned her head back, brushing her lips against his.

Her skin felt strange. Not bad, just strange. The smallest touch made her want to purr. _"I'm sorry to do this hime, but Sakura assures me that it needs to be done. Do I have your permission to do what I was told needed to be done?"_ Lee asked in his broken raspy tone and she nodded her head faintly. Part of her curious to know what he was talking about while the other part of her didn't really care as long as he kept touching her.

He sighed softly and grasped the lapels of her shirt and slipped the buttons from the loops and ran his hands across her skin gently teasing her nipples before moving his hands lower before digging his finger nails into her hips. She twitched and made a strange sound as he leaned over her again and licked the new seal over her stomach as he hooked his fingers in her panties and pulled them down and off of her and set them aside.

Ah. Now she understood. He was going to fuck her.

He reached for her and she grabbed his hands, he froze and looked at her wondering if maybe she had changed her mind. But she surprised him by sitting up and saying. "Lee forget the foreplay and just do whatever it is Sakura said needed to be done. I hate waiting." He gave her a curious look and nodded his head and grasped her waist and picked her up and settled her in his lap over his cock and kissed her hard as he forced her down on him.

She screamed against his lips and gripped his shoulders in her small hands as his cock slipped inside of her all the way, the head brushing against the wall of her womb, sending pleasant little shocks through her system. Lee brushed her hair back from her face and licked along her jugular as he lifted her up a little bit and brought her back down as he rasped against one of her ears, _"Fast now, slow and easy later." _She gasped and gripped his shoulders a little tighter as she shivered.

Wrapping his arms around her, he crushed her against him as he shifted their body's so that she was laying on her back under him and started to move. His cock sliding in and out of her body as he gripped her hips and angled her hips a little bit so that he could push himself deeper inside of her.

(*************************************************************************************************************************************************************************)

It had been hours since he had started watching the house, and enough was enough. He was so anxious and worried that his insides were tied up in knots. Moving away from the building where he had been watching the house, Kakashi decided that it was time to go in and get Uzu and take her to the hospital. If she was as sick as the kids seemed to believe then he needed to do something, but he had been reluctant to do so at first because the kids seemed to know more about her condition than he had thought, and he wasn't willing to do more damage to her.

But he figured that he had humored the kids long enough. He was going in and taking Uzu even if he had to crush every little child's skull in, and that was that. He stepped out into the open and started walking. His expression shuttered.

He wasn't sure what he would find in there but he had the bone deep feeling that he wasn't going to like it one little bit. He didn't bother knocking when he reached the front door to the house, he just ripped the damn thing off of it's hinges without thinking and stepped inside and looked around.

He caught sight of a majority of the kids laying on the floor, propped up against the wall, curled up together all of them sound asleep aside form the pink haired girl who looked at him in shock and started to say something when he growled at her. "Where. Is. Uzu?"

The girl opened her mouth and shut it several times before looking over her shoulder, down the hall, and Kakashi curled his fingers into fists at his sides and was about to ask which room she was in when he heard a loud keening scream coming from somewhere towards the back of the house and felt the bottom drop out of his stomach as the pink haired girl rushed to get in his way.

He took care fo her easily. Pinching a nerve in the back of her neck and putting her out before he decided to hurt her and made his way down the hall.

(*************************************************************************************************************************************************************************)

Uzu cried out as Lee leaned over her back, his cock buried all the way to the base inside of her, one of his hands gripping her wrists while he nipped at the skin along her spine and shoulders before latching onto her nape, biting down as much as he dared as he pounded himself inside of her. She was close to cumming again, he could tell by her soft cries and whimpers as he thrust deeper inside of her.

She bit her lower lip and gasped as she felt him wrap her tail around his hand and pull back on it so that she couldn't squirm away from him. Her body clenched around him, squeezing and milking him until he could'nt take it any more and thrust harder, forcing her to cum before he came himself.

She screamed as she reached the edge, her small body spasming under him as dark spots danced in her vision. Lee growled and bit down on her shoulder and pulled her back against him roughly and held her in place as he came, his semen filling her body.

_Just once. _Lee thought darkly. This would be the only time he came inside of her, and he was only doing it because Sakura truly believed that it was medically relevant he caught Uzu around the chest as she slumped forward, her body shaking almost violently. He released her shoulder and hugged her for a second before laying her on the bed on her stomach and pulled out.

Sakura may have encouraged him to do this more than once, but it looked to him like once was just going to have to be enough, Uzu was exhausted, the one round of sex had been enough to drain her to the point of fainting. He leaned over her and checked the bite marks that he had left on her skin, worried that he might have actually hurt her, but didn't see any blood. Something that made him feel less guilty than he had just a second ago.

Reaching out he carefully half lifted Uzu up off of the bed and yanked the covers back and set her back down and was starting to cover her when his bedroom door banged open and he turned to look at who was there and froze when he found himself staring into the murderous eyes of one angry Special Jounin, Sharigan no Kakashi.

_Oh fuck..._


	22. Kakashi's rage

_Oh fuck... Had he just-_

Lee didn't have any time to finish his thought much less react as the jounin snarled something particularly vicous about his mother before charging across the room and hit him with a chakra strenthened punch to his jaw, shattering the bone upon contact while sending Lee flying to the other side of the room at the same time.

He slammed into the wall across from the bed and blinked back tears as he tried to work his jaw, but it was no good since the son of a bitch jounin had broken it. So naturally he could no longer explain himself and his actions as he watched the jounin lean over Uzu and thread his fingers through her hair and feel for a pulse as he stared down Lee with the cold and emotionless eyes of a murderer.

Lee didn't bother getting mad about being hit. He knew that the jounin didn't understand, which was the _only_ reason that he wasn't going to kill the man for breaking his jaw. He did however, somehow, managed to give the man a wolf like smirk despite the pain he was in. Pissing the jounin off to the point of being blind with rage.

Kakashi couldn't believe what he had just walked in on.

This is- This was horrible. How long had this been going on? How long had this man been... Greif rose up in his chest. Threatening to over take his senses, he wanted to kill the little fucker sitting on the floor across the room for what he had done. He wanted to butcher him and hang his decaying corpse from the highest building and watch as the crows and other birds striped his body of it's flesh.

He had thought that the kids were trying to help Uzu, not torture her!

Yet that's exactly what it looked like they had been doing. Torturing her.

He pulled the blanket back and examined her small body, only vaguely aware of the fact that something was different with her as he checked for broken bones. And froze the second when his eyes drifted lower, dreading the amount of damage that he might find. He was horrified at first when he realized that there was no blood from a busted hymen like one might expect from a small child, on the inside of her thighs, and he was equally disturbed by the amount of semen leaking out of her body.

That goddamned bastard! Just how long had he been raping her? He wondered as he gritted his teeth behind his mask and had to resist the urge to roar his sorrow to the heavens. Why? Why had this happened?

Uzu had always been such a sweet little girl, and he was so very afraid that this would change her as much as it had damaged her.

He unzipped his vest and slowly, so as not to jar her, shrugged it off- his only thought was to cover her body and keep her as warm as possible as he wrapped the vest around her and carefully picked her up and cradled her against his chest and glared at the young man again, his Sharigan spinning wildly as he stood up and snarled.

"I'll be back to kill you later." Kakashi was only mildly puzzled by the man when smirked at him as he shrugged his shoulders and waved gooodbye to him and as he then stood up and with the girl cradled in his arms as he started to walk out of the room. When suddenly he was enveloped in darkness and Uzu was wrenched from his grasp before he could react.

All he heard was a female voice coming from what seemed like a great distance saying almost mockingly, "Sorry Kakashi-sensei. But you should know not to underestimate us." A moment later there was a break in the darkness and Kakashi could make out a young woman with shoulder length hair and emerald green eyes standing next to a tall young man with shaggy red hair and pale aqua eyes.

And in the red head's arms... Was Uzu.

His little Uzu.

"You son of a bit-" Kakashi started to say as he prepared to lunge forward and grab Uzu back when the pink haired woman sighed and cut him off with a softly said,

"Sorry sensei." And a snap of her fingers causing the light to vanish from his sight again as he was closed up inside of something that slithered around his feet like snakes. Just where the hell was he? What sort of jutsu was this? He wondered as he caught the vague clips of a conversation from outside of the small space restraining him.

_"What should I do with Kakashi?" _

_"Erase his memories and dump him at home." _

_"Alright I can do that. Now what about Uzu-hime?" _

_"Leave her to me and Lee. We'll flush out her insides and clean her up and dress her then put her to bed so that she can rest and recover... But first I think you should maybe do something about Lee's jaw. His grin is starting to freak me out."_


	23. Gaara's remissance of debts owed

_"What should I do with Kakashi?" _

_"Erase his memories and dump him at home." _

_"Alright I can do that. Now what about Uzu-hime?" _

_"Leave her to me and Lee. We'll flush out her insides and clean her up and dress her then put her to bed so that she can rest and recover... But first I think you should maybe do something about Lee's jaw please. His grin is starting to freak me out." _Gaara said as Sakura turned to look at her lover and almost visibly cringed.

_Oh. Ow, that had to hurt like hell._ She thought as she caught Lee's eye and saw him give another creepy grin while he rubbed his broken jaw. Ignoring all common sense as well as the nearly nerve numbing pain that came from having some of his teeth and a little bit of his jaw bone tear through the skin of one of his cheeks. "Right, let's get you fixed up." Sakura said as she walked over to the taijutsu user and knelt down and undid the mental lock she had on her chakra reserve so that she could use it to heal him before she went totally dry.

She wasn't after all Uzu or the Kyubbi. She didn't have a near indefinite supply of the stuff.

She did however use hers more wisely than most. It was why she was so well suited to be a medical nin. Kakashi had recognized her talent. And so had Lady Tsunade.

Reaching out she placed her hand just a hair's breath from Lee's mangled face and smiled at him to let him know that everything would be fine then started to focus her chakra while Gaara created an opening in his sand prison in which to place his hand on Kakashi so that he could erase his memories of what he had seen here today. After all, if he managed to escape and get to the Hokage- well...they'd be in real trouble.

Closing his eyes, he blocked out everything so that he could focus on his task and promptly jerked back with a hiss when he felt Kakashi bite his hand through his mask. Looking down at the spot where the jounin had bitten him, he saw blood well up and start to drip down the back of his hand and felt the instinctive need to lash out like he used too as a child, but somehow managed to hold himself in check.

Whatever Kakashi did- they needed him alive so that he and Uzu could get together in the future. If he lashed out, that wouldn't happen and Uzu would spend the rest of her days living a half life.

It was an appalling thought. More grim and horrifying than any torture that he could think of. And to say that he'd die before he let that happen, would be a grave understatement. He'd move heaven and Earth itself just to avoid seeing Uzu live such a painful life. She was his most important person. His first friend, his hope and light. Without her- he'd still be a murderous little monster hellbent on destroying innocent people.

He owed her dammit! All of them did in one way or another. That was why they were here.

Well that and some of them considered her to be family.

_Family_, Gaara thought with a slight smile as he looked down at the little kitsune girl snuggled up against his body, sleeping so soundly. That was another thing he owed her for. Without ever meeting her he never would have cleaned up his act and learned what it was to be a part of a family. He never would have known his brother. Or his sister. And inevitably he never would have truly known his father either.

He was about to reach back inside the small opening in the sand prison (mindful this time that he'd have to avoid Kakashi's teeth or he may lose a finger or something) when several of the others started to wake up. Each one stirring slowly where they were resting either slumped against the wall or laying on the floor.

Neji, Kiba, Shino (was that his name? Gaara never really figured out what the guy's name was because he was so damned freaky looking that he never bothered to ask) and Shikamaru were the first to recover and wake up. Each one moving around slowly at first because they were still feeling weak from sharing their chakra with Uzu during her time of distress and physical transformation.

"Ouch, my head hurts." Kiba complained weakly, no doubt referring to the pounding in his head that was a result of his chakra having been drained.

"My head hurts too," Shikamaru said in a peeved tone as he sat upright and leaned against Shino's shoulder for support for a moment before asking, "Did it work? Is Uzu okay now?" Gaara laid his hand on Kakashi's still form and looked the man in the eye as he used what chakra he had left to remove the jounin's memories of their encounter here then knocked him out before saying,

"Come see for yourselves." Causing the young men to each jump to their feet as fast as they could (without falling over into a dead faint) and gathered around him to see Uzu or themselves as Gaara released Kakashi and let his body carefully drop to the floor.


End file.
